The We, the Hostages edition. Congress has passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act and it will soon be headed for President Biden’s signature. Passage will allow our nation to meet its obligations and avoid financial ruin. But the toll exacted by House Republicans during negotiations with the Biden Administration will be paid for years – and will harm the vulnerable and those with low incomes the most. 

We the hostages appreciate the Biden Administration’s efforts to reduce the severity of these cuts and restrictions.  But it is still a great disappointment that the basic thrust of this agreement is still to deny assistance to some of our poorest people.  It will reduce investments that we badly need to overcome the worsening affordable housing crisis for low-income renters, to help students overcome the learning deficits that worsened during the pandemic, and to address mental health and substance use crises.  It allows increases in the Pentagon without examining the evidence of military contractor price-gouging.  It not only fails to secure new revenues from wealthy individuals and corporations, it undermines the IRS’ capacity to collect taxes already owed from those with high incomes. 

When Breanna Dietrich was pregnant with her youngest daughter, she was working as a manager at a pizza joint. Her pregnancy was considered high risk; she battled a number of health issues, including a heart murmur. “About six months into my pregnancy, I had a medical emergency and needed to go to the hospital,” said Dietrich, a mother of four who lives in Wheeling, West Virginia. “But my managers said I couldn’t go, because they needed me behind the counter. I knew in that moment I was choosing between my job and my baby’s health. I dropped my keys and walked out the door. They said I had quit. I didn’t qualify for unemployment.”

The United States is fast approaching the debt ceiling, an arbitrary and arcane cap on how much the government can borrow to pay its bills. If the ceiling doesn’t get lifted periodically, the country defaults and catastrophe follows. But now, congressional Republicans who repeatedly raised the ceiling under Donald Trump refuse to raise it under Joe Biden unless Democrats agree to devastating cuts to federal programs. They’re taking us all ransom to inflict suffering on the families who’ve done the least to drive the national debt.