>>At issue was legislation to raise the debt ceiling — essentially paying the nation’s credit card bill
No, raising the debt ceiling is essentially opening up a new credit card account because all the old ones are maxxed out! The Republicans have sold us out and now both parties are officially driving us over the Cloward-Piven cliff.
Exactly. "But that spending was already authorized!" Yes, it was authorized to be more spending than there was money available to pay for it. "But look, it's all in the budget!" Until recently, there was no budget at all, just fraudulent "continuing resolutions" that were in deficit from day one; currently, most of it is in a budget that was in deficit from day one, and there's an unknowable amount of "off budget" spending for emergencies and so-called emergencies that never see the light of day.