Winners and Losers in Congress’s Debt Deal

Winners and Losers in Congress’s Debt Deal

Winners and Losers in Congress’s Debt Deal

The Nation‘s Ari Melber on MSNBC’s The Last Word describes how Barack Obama might have made the debt ceiling and eventual debt deal more of a compromise and less of a concession. 

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Barack Obama continually told the American people that he believed in a "balanced approach" to solve the debt crisis. Instead, he eventually conceded decades of progressive principles in a deal that the Congressional Black Caucus’s Emanuel Cleaver denounced as a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich." While the poor, elderly and disabled now face deep cuts to essential social services, the rich and corporations will continue to enjoy their wealth without sacrificing more in taxes. 

Still, despite the imminent threat of default, seventy per cent of the American public was against raising the debt ceiling. The Nation‘s Ari Melber joined MSNBC’s The Last Word last night to describe how Barack Obama might have made the debt ceiling and eventual debt deal more of a compromise and less of a concession.

Anna Lekas Miller

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x