Almost every Democrat in Michigan voted for the Debt Relief bill, which will punish working class people while benefiting fossil fuel companies and military contractors
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, wrote on Twitter that the agreement is “cruel and shortsighted,” pointing to the work requirements and real-term cuts to rental assistance “during an already worsening homelessness crisis.”
Over the weekend, President Joe Biden celebrated what he called a bipartisan success by passing the debt ceiling deal, which not only will do tremendous harm to working class people, it will further entrench Neoliberal economic policies.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, also known as the debt ceiling bill, will benefit some of the following groups of people:
- Defense Contractors, because of the increased amount to an already bloated Pentagon Budget
- Millionaires and Billionaires, who will continue to cheat the public by not having to pay a reasonable amount of taxes on their wealth.
- Fossil Fuel companies, who are given more flexibility to extract oil and gas, along with new pipeline construction, such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, which will not only be devastating for those who along the proposed pipeline route, but it will add to the already dismal record of the Biden Administration on Climate Change policies.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, also known as the debt ceiling bill, will be a detriment to some of the following groups of people:
- Working Class people will be impacted, since they will be required to cover more of the tax burden than the wealthiest people in the country.
- People who are food insecure – since it will be even more difficult to access food assistance, plus the new work requirements for people seeking food assistance.
- Tenants, which will face even more reductions to rental assistance, despite the fact that millions have not financially recovered since the beginning of the pandemic.
- Families and communities who will be devastated from new oil and gas pipeline projects, such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline project.
- Students, who will not have to pay back their students loans.
The reality of the vote on the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House and the Senate, before it was signed by Biden, is that most Democrats supported it. In Michigan alone, every Congressional Representative supported the legislation, except for Rep. Tlaib. In addition, both Michigan Senators, Senator Peters and Senator Stabenow voted for the legislation. In a statement released on June 1st, Senator Gary Peters said, “Allowing our nation to default would have been catastrophic, risking an economic crisis and significant job losses, higher prices, and Americans’ hard-earned retirement savings.” Peters, like so many loyal Democratic politicians, are either unaware of or in denial over how this legislation will hurt hard working Americans.
David Sirota speaking on Democracy Now! Interviewed yesterday said,
Well, the losers are everybody else. The losers, in particular, very, very poor people. Again, as you discussed, the changes to the food stamp program, to make it harder for lots of people to access food stamps, at a time of an affordability crisis, that’s a big loss. I think student debtors, where, again, in the middle of an affordability crisis, you’ve got student debt payments that are going to start up again. So, basically, the working class of this country was deeply harmed by this bill.
I wonder how this kind of legislation, which will negatively impact working class people, how it will impact voters in the 2024 election. More importantly, will the continued bipartisan commitment to neoliberal economic policies be enough to push people into the streets and to make revolutionary demands of the rich and reduced public funding of Capitalist entities like military contractors and fossil fuel companies?
Additional sources and analysis:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/senate-mountain-valley-pipeline
https://theintercept.com/2023/05/26/deconstructed-debt-limit-economy/
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
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