Debt Ceiling: The Now, the When, the Future

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week in light of recent news we revisit the seemingly evergreen news cycle encircling the American debt ceiling. In a prior episode we set out to define what exactly in the fuck constitutes the “debt ceiling,” and this week we take it even further with an examination of how legislative threats and weaponization of the debt ceiling have affected our fiscal politics across recent Presidential administrations. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decreed this week that any negotiations with regard to the debt ceiling would be met with GOP-sanctioned rebuke of certain keystone elements of Biden-regime economic policy. Join us this week with a look at how we got here with the “ceiling” and how coverage and exploitation of our national debt has evolved over our recent political timeline. But first comes a rant or three, where Zak forecasts some early but likely prescient 2024 electoral prognostications with a dismissal of the Florida GOP’s once-upon-a-time golden boy, head-scratching at the latest Kennedy family entrant and some kinda-, sorta- optimism for a gemstone endorsing Biden primary rival; Andrew makes the case for the potential end of the NBA’s latest (and as of now still chugging) dynasty with some shade for one of their pillar’s latest bit of mercurial on-court conduct; and Ed details the continued red-state effort opposed to the participatory rights of trans-athletes in high school and intercollegiate competition.