Debt Ceiling

Cruelty Caucus

The most progressive members of the House are not happy with the compromise reached between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy on raising the debt ceiling. But, their unhappiness with it isn’t a threat to the leadership of the president or Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. However, the anger from the House Freedom Caucus, who will be referred to as the “Goon Caucus” for the rest of today’s blog, is a threat to Kevin McCarthy’s speakership.

Representative Pramila Jayapal, Chairwoman of the House Progressive Caucus, is unhappy with the compromise because she’s concerned the deal could mean “harmful” effects for poor and working Americans.

Jayapal gave credit to the White House for helping to ensure the bill’s proposed federal spending caps are not as “as catastrophic as they could have been,” but she also raised concerns about how the new spending limits will affect funding for nondefense programs. 

Jayapal said, “When it comes time to write these appropriations bills. There will be some very, very difficult choices to make.” She also said, “There will be real harmful impacts for poor people and working people being barred from income support that they not just desperately need, but frankly, that they deserve. There will be impacts for environmental justice and the fight against the climate crisis and the recisions in funding, many of which we still don’t have clarity about.”

She will vote no on raising the debt ceiling while understanding the consequences if it’s not raised. Jayapal is an adult. The goons on the other hand…

The goons have a scorched Earth policy on stuff like this. While progressives like Pramilia Jayapal is concerned the compromise will hurt Americans, the Goon Caucus is concerned it doesn’t hurt them enough. For Republicans, cruelty is the point. Chip Roy, the policy chairman of the Goon Caucus is accusing McCarthy of reneging (“reneging” is a word Republicans have to be careful with) on the deal he made with the caucus to win their support to make him peaker, and that is the debt ceiling wouldn’t be raised without significant cruel cuts that’ll hurt the poor, minorities, and working Americans. Another part of that deal is that any one member of the House can force a vote to oust the speaker should he fail to keep his promises. As Scooby would say, “Ruh-Roh, Kevin.”

In case you forgot, Glenn Beck is still out there with a radio show (I forgot) and Chip Roy went on it to howl about the Biden/McCarthy compromise and said, “If we can’t kill it, we’re going to have to regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again.”

It took 15 votes for Kevin to win the speakership and to finally secure the job, he had to make deals, not with the devil because that wouldn’t have been as bad, but with goons. And these deals aren’t with your commonplace everyday thumb-breaking goons down the docks but with MAGAt goons. At least the thumb-breakers have some integrity. Kevin McCarthy could not win the job of Speaker from his own caucus until he made deals with these MAGAt goons that would make him the weakest and worst speaker in House history. If only we could have foreseen the trouble this would eventually bring.

Oh, wait. We did. We liberals called it. The only uncertainty on McCarthy’s position is just exactly how long it will last. Will it end tomorrow? Will it end in two weeks? Will it end in two months? Has Vegas put up odds yet? The only thing most of us agree on is that he won’t finish this congressional session with the gavel…which someone will probably use to break his thumbs.

There is one more certainty and that is, if Kevin is replaced, the next Speaker will be even worse.

Ruh-roh, indeed.

Creative note: I had two ideas on this subject concerning the Freedom Caucus and because of my indecisiveness, I kept going back and forth between them until they were both completely drawn. The other one only has to be colored to be finished. To make the decision easier for me, I decided to publish both. You’ll see the next one in a day or so. I don’t want to do two in a row on the Goon Caucus. I will say that the other idea is more mainstream and would have a better chance of being published by news outlets than the one you’re looking at here. But, I liked the irreverence of this one.

I wasn’t sure I made the right choice…that is until goons started tweeting their butthurtness at me caused by this cartoon. Fortunately, I’m not a little be-yotch boy like Kevin, and ain’t nobody breaking my thumbs. Regular readers of this blog know how much I hate to upset goons and MAGAts.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Advertisement

Debt Ceiling Cheetahs

In yesterday’s blog, I talked about how Republicans don’t actually care about corruption unless a Democrat does it. In the case of the Biden family, Republicans can only pretend there’s corruption…but they really really care about it. The same holds true to a lot of other issues, like debt.

Republicans don’t give a shit about debt except when Democrats are in power. Right now, they’re tying raising the debt ceiling to cutting government spending. That sounds nice, right? If it’s the right thing to do, then why didn’t they make those same demands during the Trump administration (sic)? Republicans raised the debt ceiling three times during Trump’s presidency (sic).

Republicans are often better at messaging than Democrats. Most people have the perception that Republicans are better with budgets and the economy. But the facts are that most economic downturns occur during Republican administrations and most government spending is created by Republicans. Republicans are as good with finances just as much as they are with patriotism (Russian meddling), law and order (January 6 and defending Trump crimes), and family values (grab them by the pussy).

Ronald Reagan added $1.86 trillion to the national debt, a 186 percent increase from the $997.8 billion debt at the end of Jimmy Carter’s last budget. Reagan was a big fan of the trickle-down myth and gave huge tax cuts to asshole billionaires.

George H. W. Bush added added $1.55 trillion to the debt, a 54 percent increase from the $2.857 trillion debt at the end of Reagan’s last budget.

George W. Bush added $5.85 trillion to the national debt, a 101 percent increase from the $5.8 trillion debt at the end of Clinton’s last budget. He funded two wars while giving billionaire assholes more tax cuts. No one could have predicted that wouldn’t work out (that’s sarcasm).

And Trump? He added nearly $7 trillion to the debt. Take in the fact that Trump added $7 trillion while only having half the time of Reagan and George W. (because he lost his reelection attempt to Joe Biden and is now a one-term loser). His greatest legislative accomplishment was giving himself a tax cut because he’s a billionaire asshole. All three times that the debt ceiling needed to be raised during the Trump presidency (sic), guess who voted for each time. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Do you know what preconditions they attached each time they voted to raise it? None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

But in all fairness to Republicans, there are very good reasons why they didn’t add any preconditions to raising the debt ceiling during the Trump presidency (sic). It’s because they’re lying scum-sucking hypocritical weasely stupid racist bastards who don’t actually give a flying fuck about debt. And in fact, if you listen to them, most don’t understand the debt ceiling. And according to a recent poll, most Americans don’t understand it either.

A new poll commissioned by CNN says that 60 percent of Americans only want the debt ceiling raised if spending cuts are attached to it. They don’t specify what spending they want cut, they just want cuts. But, some people do lie when asked a question by a pollster. For example, nearly half of respondents claim they have been following negotiations over the debt ceiling, but that has to be a lie…or they’re stupid. Are we a nation full of Boeberts?

Are the respondents stupid? Yes, they are. While 60 percent are on the GOP’s side with attaching spending cuts to raising the debt ceiling, only 23 percent say Republicans have the right priorities? That’s like saying Nickelback is the best band in the world while also hating bands that keep rewriting the same song over and over and over and over and…

Kevin McCarthy said, “I told the president Feb. 1, ‘I said, Mr. President, you’re not going to raise taxes. You’ve got to spend less money than was spent this year.'”

Raising the debt limit, pay attention, DOES NOT INCREASE SPENDING and despite what Fucker McCarthy said, it DOES NOT RAISE TAXES!!!! Raising the debt limit is paying off spending that’s already been agreed upon, legislated, and passed. Republicans are screaming about cutting spending before they will raise the debt ceiling while NOT working on the next budget where you do negotiate spending cuts.

And Repubicans are proposing cuts to a lot of social programs while demanding increases in others, like the defense budget. Kids, spending more money isn’t spending less money. Fact, fact, fuckity, fact, fact.

Another demand Republicans are making is to eliminate the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents over the next decade. Republicans have to lie to sell this bullshit. They claim that the new agents are being hired to come after the little guy, but most importantly, poor white people who vote Republican. They will punish you for being conservative. In fact, all these new agents will be armed with guns. Be afraid…be very afraid.

The reality is, most of the new agents are to replace retiring agents and over the ten years. Most will not be armed. And most of these hirings are so the IRS will have more manpower to go after tax cheats….you know, Billionaire assholes. Republicans circle the wagons around billionaire assholes. For example, Donald Trump paid ZERO in federal taxes in 2020. How does an asshole that claims he’s worth $10 billion come out paying zero in taxes? How does an asshole who’s worth is actually $2.5 billion come out not paying any taxes?

So when President Biden and Kevin come to terms on raising the debt limit, it won’t be enough for all the Republicans in the House. A lot of them will still vote against it. Kevin has a slim GOP majority in the House, but he will still need Democrats to pass raising the debt ceiling his demanded cuts. Have fun with that.

The majority of Americans want spending cuts attached to raising the debt limit. But, just because the majority believes in something that doesn’t make it right. Mob rule doesn’t make anything factual. Once upon a time, the majority in this nation was against gay marriage. Hell, a majority used to be against interracial marriage. In 2003, a majority of Americans were in love with the idea of invading Iraq only because it made them feel warm and squishy inside.

Kevin McCarthy created this crisis. There would not be a crisis if they simply voted to raise the debt ceiling without conditions. It would be done. The bills would be paid. It would not push the entire global economy into chaos. As it is now, the nation may be in default of its debts on June 1.

Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans are holding the entire planet hostage over this GOP-created crisis.

Musice note: I listened to Alice Cooper, Alien Ant Farm, Anna Nalick, and Audioslave (I was in the A’s).

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Debt Ceiling Chicken

Here’s your cartoon for this week’s CNN Opinion newsletter. Please sign up to get these in your inbox every Sunday

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Kevin’s Kick-Start

The House of Representatives have passed a lot of bills this year and it’s made many of its members bark on Twitter about how they’re keeping their promises and saving America, yada yada yada. But most of these are on bullshit like keeping men out of women’s sports, condemning attacks on pro-life facilities, an “abortion survivors” protestion act, preventing the government from selling oil to China, pushing more drilling on government lands, and rescinding the hiring of new IRS agents that was passed last year in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The reason I call these bills “bullshit” is that they’re just noise. They won’t pass the Democratic-led Senate, and even if they did, they’d never get signed on the Democratic president’s desk. In fact, most of these barely even passed the Republican-led fucknut House.

This is why Kevin McCarthy’s House gets a failing report card. They don’t legislate to improve the lives of their constitituents. They only work on dogma and gaslight which they all hope will get them on Tucker Carlson Tonight, and guess what. Tucker’s gone.

Real leaders would read the room, face reality, and work on what they can get passed to improve the lives of their constituents instead of wasting time by being bottom feeders for the lowest common denominators. While the entire House may not be Gaetzs, MTGs, and Boeberts, it’s held hostage by them. Stop catering to the illiterate knuckle-draggers and do your jobs, losers.

Kevin McCarthy was set to become the worst Speaker in the history of this nation before finally winning that 15th vote to become Speaker. He established that he will trade anything for votes and this week, he barely passed a bill to raise the debt limit.

The debt limit authorizes paying the bills Congress has already passed. It’s like paying your credit card bill. Imagine instead of paying your bills, you and your wife negotiate what you’ll pay for next year, and if you can’t come to an agreement, you default on your bills, your lights are turned off, there’s no cable, creditors start calling, and you lose your house and have to move in with your mom and her hairless cat she loves more than she loves you. the creditors don’t care about your drama, your relationships, or the the hairless cat. They just want you to pay your bills.

The best thing to do when you get your bills is to pay them. Not paying on our government debt can send the government into default and totally trash the economy. It can cost jobs. Republicans like to use the debt limit to go back and renegotiate what they couldn’t block in previous congressional sessions. It’s holding the nation hostage. It is a game of chicken, but with opponents who don’t realize what happens in head-on collisions. Republicans are stupid.

But they only do this when a Democrat is in the White House. They passed a debt limit increase three times while Trump was president (sic).

The bill the GOP House is sending to the Senate won’t pass. Kevin knows this and says it’s to “kick start” negotiations with President Biden, who’s rightly said he’ll negotiate future budgets but not a debt limit increase. Congress should pass a clean increase for the debt limit, without the games.

And what the House passed is based on cruelty, because that’s what Republicans do. It adds work requirements to receive Medicaid and welfare benefits while cutting college loan forgiveness, child healthcare, daycare, veteran healthcare, housing assistance, pell grants, environmental protection, train safety inspections…wait.

The House wants to cut train safety inspections? Did I imagine all that noise and blame they were throwing around about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio? They never did blame the company responsible, Norfolk Southern, but they sure went after Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Now, they want to cut those inspections? By the way, has anyone checked on whether Trump is still sending aid to East Palestine beyond that crate of Trump Water he took for his photo-op?

They also want to cut the funding for the IRS to hire 87,000 agents over the next decade. So, they’re not cutting the Trump tax breaks for corporations and billionaires that added over $2 trillion to our debt, but they want to reduce government debt by making it easier for billionaires to be tax cheats. Sure, let’s starve children and cut healthcare to our veterans, but make sure Tiffany doesn’t get hit by an inheritance tax, because she can’t be rolling in royalties from “Like A Bird.“

This is why you should never vote Republican. They’re not serious and they hold the nation hostage. Did we learn nothing on January 6?

What we should do is lock Kevin and his fellow Republicans in a room and force them to hear “Like A Bird” on repeat until they finally pass a clean debt-limit increase. I give it 30 seconds.

Music Note: I listened to Infant Sorrow.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Freedom Caucus Terrorism

Instead of agreeing to raise the debt ceiling like responsible legislators should, Republicans would rather use it to hold the nation hostage, which has become a right of passage for the GOP anytime a Democrat is in the White House. They rubber-stamp this shit when a Republican is in there.

Newt Gingrich figured this out in 1995 and despite the fact it didn’t work out for them, the GOP has been doing it ever since.

Again, the debt ceiling does NOT create new spending. It only authorizes the government to continue borrowing to pay its bills, like military spending, bailouts to corporations, and all the shortages created by giving huge tax cuts to corporations, trust-fund babies, and billionaire assholes.

Kevin McCarthy has demanded that President Biden cut government spending before his party will agree to raise the debt ceiling…but he wants the president to find the cuts. Even terrorists are better at providing lists of demands than Republicans. Enter the House Freedom Caucus.

The Freedom Caucus is the most conservative group in Congress. They’re more far-right than actually conservative and they’re not really a policy-focused group. They’d rather ban books than read them. They’re more about culture wars and loud noises. They are also the vilest, most racist, and biggest liars in Congress. Its chairman is Scott Perry and the vice-chairman is Jim Gym Jordan. Prominent members include Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Ronny Jackson. Former members include Louie Gohmert, Devin Nunes, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Mark Meadows, Barry Loudermilk, Mick Mulvaney, Mark Sanford, and Ron DeSantis.

The Freedom Caucus is less about freedom and more about gooning. From here on out, that’s how we’ll refer to them, as the Goon Caucus.

The Goon Caucus has power because of the GOP’s slim majority. It was their efforts that forced 15 votes before Kevin McCarthy could win the speakership. Some of the deals he made with the Goon Caucus members were sweet committee assignments, guns on the floor of the house, removal of metal detectors to enter the House, Fucknut Fridays (everybody wears a wife-beater and gets a kazoo), and giving over 44 thousand hours of security footage to Tucker Carlson so he could edit it all down to four minutes to prove the January 6 attack on the Capitol wasn’t violent.

The Goon Caucus also played a heavy part in helping Donald Trump try to steal the 2020 election. And, many of them played a heavy part in the white nationalist terrorist MAGA attack on the capitol with Barry Loudermilk giving tours to terrorists the day before and Lauren Boebert attempting to tweet out Nancy Pelosi’s location. Several members of the Goon Caucus asked Trump for presidential (sic) pardons before he fled D.C. for Mar-a-Lago with stolen classified documents. They’re a swell bunch who probably smells like cinnamon and vanilla.

But since they do have power in the House, Kevin McCarthy has to at least patronize their demands or one of them can call for his removal. It only takes one member which is another one of those conditions he met to win the speakership thus becoming the weakest Speaker in House history. Many believe it was the Goon Caucus that made John Boehner and Paul Ryan just give up on Congress altogether.

So what are the goons’ demands to consider voting to raise the debt ceiling?

They want to revoke all new spending that helps the IRS go after billionaire tax cheats. They want to revoke all spending on climate investments. They also want President Biden to scrap his plan to forgive more than $400 billion in student loan debt, which the Supreme Court will probably do for them.

They want to cut discretionary spending back to 2022 levels and keep it there for a decade except for yearly increases of just one percent, but they want to leave out cuts to the military and veterans and haven’t specified where these cuts will come from. Economists believe cutting back to last year’s level would cause a recession which would then grant the Goon Caucus the ability to blame Biden.

They’re demanding more work requirements for welfare recipients even though there are already work requirements to receive welfare. They also want work requirements for Medicaid.

They want to recover unspent COVID relief funds. About 60 percent of what’s left is to shore up pensions for machinists and iron workers. Other remaining funds are meant for veterans’ health care and vaccine distribution and development, as well as transit funding that’s been promised to specific states and cities but is still technically unobligated. They’re not asking Marjorie Taylor Greene to pay back the $183,504 she received in PPP “loans”.

They want to cut non-defense spending to totals from five years ago. 

They want an end to all federal energy regulations. Look how well cutting regulations have done recently for the railway and banking industries.

They basically want to revoke all spending approved by Congress when it had a Democratic majority.

If the Goon Caucus doesn’t get what it wants, even if it can’t be specific on what it wants, it’ll shut down the government. And Kevin McCarthy can’t stop this. The government will shut down and the entire world’s economy may be trashed on the whims of 20 percent of the House.

This isn’t legislating. This is terrorism.

Music note: I listened to The Breeders.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Debt Scheming

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (gag) is demanding that President Biden negotiate with him and Republicans on raising the debt ceiling. Republicans make a lot of noise about cutting debt and runaway spending and use the debt ceiling as a tool to hold the nation hostage. Did you know that 28 percent of our nation’s current debt was created during Donald Trump’s four years in the White House (sic)?

Again, raising the debt ceiling does not authorize new spending. It authorizes the United States government to meet its debt obligations on spending that already happened. Republicans are hoping voters are as ignorant about the debt ceiling as they are. Refusing to raise the ceiling threatens the entire world’s economy.

Wait. Didn’t Republicans promise to fix the economy if they won the House? After doing nothing except make empty resolutions, kicking Democrats off committees, and putting terrorist lovers and racists on them, Republicans are finally ready to do something about the economy…and that is fuck it up.

Seriously, you don’t fix the economy by holding it hostage.

President Biden is refusing to negotiate with McCarthy, and he’s right. The legislation that authorized the spending that the ceiling needs to be raised for has already been negotiated. It’s literally already been legislated. Plus, you can’t trust goons, so why negotiate with them? It’s like negotiating with terrorists and in some cases with Republicans, you’re literally negotiating with terrorists.

And how can you take a guy seriously who removes Ilhan Omar from a committee for antisemitism, but gives Ms. Jewish Space Lasers two committee seats?

Now ask a Republican what they want to cut? They made a little noise about cutting Social Security and Medicare but quickly learned that’s political suicide. A few Republicans have mentioned defense spending which we spend over 800 billion on each year, and add more to every year…but there’s no way in Hell Republicans are going to touch that.

This Congress will have to pass a budget in the near future. If they want to cut spending, that’s where they do it, not in a debt ceiling fight, but in an actual budget fight. If you think Republicans are hapless now, wait until they get to the budget. Nutless monkeys would do a better job of crafting a budget than Republicans can.

Every member of Congress needs to vote yes on raising the debt ceiling…and those too stupid to know what it actually does should look back at the most recent debt ceiling fights. That history lesson should educate them real quick on one thing: Republicans always lose debt ceiling fights.

Republicans always lose fights over raising the debt ceiling because it’s a stupid fight. But once again, the GOP has a Speaker of the House who’s stupid.

When asked what his message to McCarthy would be about the debt ceiling issue, President Biden said. “show me your budget and I’ll show you mine.” McCarthy didn’t have a real answer because he doesn’t have a budget. He doesn’t even have a list of programs to cut.

Here’s a negotiating tip, kids: When you make demands, make sure you have an actual list of demands. You just can’t Steve Carell it from “Anchorman” and shout, “Loud noises.”

McCarthy is demanding cuts in the budget and said it’s up to President Biden to tell him there’s not any wasteful spending in Washington. He’s demanding cuts but wants Biden to propose where they can happen. How about no more tax cuts for billionaire assholes? Perhaps McCarthy’ssolution to paying off debt should be a GoFundMe run by George Santos.

George Santos ran a GoFundMe to save the life of a veteran’s dog, but he kept all the money raised for himself, possibly to purchase more blue sweaters. Basically, Santos’ GoFundMe scheme is a lot like all Republican budget schemes. Their schemes are always built on lies and in the end, the people who need the help the most, the ones Republicans promised to help, end up getting fucked while a Republican gets richer.

Have I mentioned previously that Kevin McCarthy is the worst Speaker in the history of Congress? The GOP is proving again that they can’t govern.

When will voters start paying attention to that?

Creative note: I started this cartoon around 6 A.M. on a train, finished it in the Washington National Airport, then flew to Providence…and then flew to Tampa where I’m writing this blog. Tampa is just another layover for me and I’ll be catching another flight in a couple of hours.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Debt Ceiling Hypocrites

It’s always disturbing when members of Congress display ignorance of how legislation works. Republicans promise their voters that if elected, they’ll rein in government spending. The first problem is, they don’t know how it works. The second problem is, they’re all liars and hypocrites.

For most Republicans in Congress, funding the government is like a toilet. The big guys in the GOP understand how it works, but they lie about it. It’s the minions beneath them that don’t understand, and their party doesn’t need them to. They just need to vote how they’re told to vote. So when they say they’re going to fix the problem of government spending, they can’t fix it because they don’t even understand how it works.

Enter the toilet analogy. Republicans know how to flush a toilet, those that are actually housebroken. A lot of the white supremacist MAGA insurrectionists left poo in the hallways of the Capitol, so toilets may be the wrong analogy here. But, let’s say they know how to take a dump in a toilet with a few even knowing how to wipe themselves. But, they don’t know how it works. If it’s broken and they try to fix it, they’ll eventually end up calling a plumber which brings this back to being a good analogy because most plumbers are more qualified to serve in Congress than the likes of Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Though, most plumbers have to deal with less shit than the walking feces that is Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Fun story that’s also gross (I’m sorry. Did we already pass gross?): I had a housemate for a few months a few years ago and one day he clogged the toilet and left it. When I found it, much to my horror, he was outside with his loser friends smoking cigarettes. I told him he clogged the toilet and then he said something that infuriated me. He said, “There’s a plunger next to the toilet. You know how to use it, right?” I replied, “I’m not sure. Do I hold it by the wooden handle when I’m beating the fucking out of you with it?” Whatever there was of our relationship deteriorated even more that day, but I did not plunge that toilet. He was also a racist Klansman wannabe (even they didn’t want him) which I didn’t find out until after I had moved in. That situation only lasted six months which was still too long. We got into a fight, he went to jail, and when he got back, I was gone. I love living alone now.

Anyway, Republicans are now barking that they’re not going to raise the debt ceiling unless they get massive cuts to programs they hate. They’re claiming that raising the debt limit increases spending. It does not.

The debt ceiling was created in World War I so Congress didn’t have to vote on every bit of spending requested by the Treasury Department, but still have some control. But Congress, which is the branch of our government that appropriates spending, has to add to the national debt constantly to meet our obligations for stuff like Social Security and Medicare. And let’s not forget the over $800 billion we spend every year on our military. Basically, raising the debt ceiling is what keeps the government’s lights on.

The money has already been approved by Congress. The debt ceiling is an increase in the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow to pay for what it has already bought. If this sounds ridiculous and stupid to you, it’s because it is.

The White House says they will not negotiate on the debt ceiling and quite frankly, they shouldn’t have to. This spending has already been negotiated and fought for. Congress has approved it. What Republicans want to do is negotiate over what Congress has already approved. It’s bad faith.

Republicans are threatening not to raise the limit which will force the federal government to default on its obligations and even decrease our credit rating, which it did when Republicans shut down the government during the Obama era.

That brings us to hypocrisy. Republicans don’t hold the debt ceiling hostage when there’s a Republican in the White House. Since there have only been two Republicans in the White House over the past 30 years, Bush W. (two terms) and Trump (one term because he lost like a big fat orange loser), the GOP only had 12 years to engage in this budget terrorism since 1992.

Republicans shut down the government during the presidencies of Clinton and Obama and now they’re about to do it under Biden. Trump himself shut the government down during his single term (only one because he lost like a big fat orange loser) demanding Congress fund his wall. They never did and he buckled and agreed to Nancy Pelosi’s budget because she wouldn’t let him give the State of the Union address until he did. I bet if McCarthy tried that trick on Biden, it wouldn’t work. Presidents don’t have to give the State of the Union in person (they can send a letter). But the government has to pay its bills.

Shutting down the government hurts millions of working Americans, the same people Republicans pretend to care about yet constantly hold hostage to cut spending on programs those same working people care about. Guess who’s going to get hurt if Republicans get their way and bring cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Funny thing: Republicans didn’t talk about cutting Social Security and Medicare during the campaigns for the midterms. It’s like how didn’t tell us they would try to ban abortion after winning the House.

Republicans are liars. They claim to care about the national debt when they’re the party that spends the most. In Obama’s eight years, around $8 trillion was added to the debt. In Trump’s four years (which he only had because he lost his reelection like a big fat orange loser), nearly $7 trillion was added.

If Donald Trump had won reelection (which he didn’t because he lost like a big fat orange loser) or had won his insurrection (which he instigated because he’s a white nationalist terrorist), imagine how much the debt would have increased. The last Republican president to actually cut spending was Eisenhower. President Bill Clinton left a surplus that George W. destroyed by financing two wars with tax cuts. The rate of spending decreased under President Obama despite the fact he inherited those two wars and still cut taxes for the middle class. Donald Trump increased the rate of spending dramatically by giving himself a tax cut. He was already only paying around $700 a year in taxes, but felt that was too much.

And if Donald Trump had won reelection (which he didn’t because he lost like a big fat orange loser), Republicans today wouldn’t be refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Fact, fact, fuckity, fact, fact.

Facebook Suspension Update: My suspension is over and I want to thank everyone who shared my cartoons, blogs, and videos on the platform during my absence. Since I only had about ten days between 30-day suspensions, some of my readers are talking about having a pool on how long until my next suspension.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Hypocrisy Ceiling

Cjones09302021

If Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can’t control the government, he’ll do everything within his power to destroy it. When this person threatens to shut down the government and force it to default on its debts, create a brand new recession, wipe out nearly 6 million jobs, and lift the nation’s unemployment rate to nearly nine percent, he is being a terrorist. Additionally, blocking the bill that will raise the debt ceiling will also prevent billions in hurricane relief from reaching red states. Republicans will shoot their own foot to keep from carrying an agenda that will benefit the nation if they perceive that agenda to be helping a Democratic president.

At the start of Barack Obama’s presidency, Mitch McConnell openly said it was his job to make the new president a one-term president. He failed but as a consolation prize, he did help Donald Trump become a one-term president (sic). Now, Mitch is trying to destroy the Biden presidency, even if he has to destroy the nation.

McConnell’s position is that Republicans are not willing to vote for any measure that raises or suspends the debt ceiling, even if they have no intentions of shutting down the government in the process. But not raising or suspending the debt ceiling is an intention to shut the government down. It’s like shooting your tires without the intention of letting all the air out. This is Republican logic.

McConnell stated, “If they want to tax, borrow, and spend historic sums of money without our input, they’ll have to raise the debt limit without our help. This is the reality. I’ve been saying this very clearly since July.” That is total and complete bullshit and Mitch knows it because he’s been around a while and a lot longer than a one-term president. Moscow Mitch McConnell is a hypocritical terrorist tortoise indebted to Vladimir Putin, and I’ve been saying that since a lot longer than last July.

This debt they’re trying to raise the ceiling on has already been voted on by…wait for it…Republicans. Part of this is the spending on the coronavirus package. Donald Trump pushed this. He plastered his name on those checks. Mitch McConnell voted for this. But now, they’re not going to vote to raise the ceiling on debt they created. And the lie they tell that it’s for new debt, is the same lie they tell every time they play these games with the debt ceiling.

There should be a new rule in Congress that if you vote to create new debt, then you have to vote to pay it off. I mean, that would be a better law than this debt ceiling shit, which should have been discarded over a hundred years ago when it was designed to create debt for World War One. We wanted to shoot Germans and pay for it later.

The debt ceiling is an increase in the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow to pay for what it has already bought. Maybe Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Matt Gaetz don’t know that. That stupid football coach who’s now a senator from Alabama, who thinks we fought socialism and communism in World War Two and the three branches of government are the House, the Senate, and Mar-a-Lago, definitely doesn’t know it. But Mitch McConnell knows how the debt ceiling works. He knows how everything works in Congress…and he knows how to break it.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, if the deadline isn’t met, the government will only have $401 billion to pay on $666 billion in debt. Yes, I see the irony in Mitch McConnell refusing to pay on 666 that he created. That number should be tattooed on his ass. My sympathy to the tattoo artist.

Democrats voted to raise the debt ceiling even when it helped fund Trump’s racist border wall. Why did they do that? Because they didn’t want the nation to default. The GOP added the border wall to raising the debt ceiling because they knew Democrats are responsible unlike shitass Republicans. Democrats are not terrorists threatening to destroy the economy to get at a president. Democrats only destroy fellow Democrats.

Here’s the deal, kids: Mitch McConnell and Republicans are planning to destroy the economy and the bet they’re making is that you will blame President Biden. And sometimes it works. It’s working with the border crisis and it worked with the withdrawal of Afghanistan. I’m surprised they haven’t blamed President Biden for ignoring the pandemic and telling people to snort bleach and horse de-wormer.

Mitch is making it impossible for the government to pay on popular stuff like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, military active duty pay, etc, and hoping you blame President Biden. Republicans are literally going to blame the Democrats for not raising the ceiling after Republicans vote against raising the ceiling. They’re going to blame the Democrats for failing to obstruct their obstruction.

Now, after adding $7 trillion with a big fat “T” under big fat Trump, the Republicans are refusing to pay for it and placing the burden on Democrats to keep the government from shutting down. McConnell is actually telling Democrats to raise the debt ceiling, while refusing to help. He said, “My advice to this Democratic government, the president, the House and Senate: Don’t play Russian roulette with our economy. Step up and raise the debt ceiling and cover all that you’ve been engaged in all year long.” He’s the one holding the gun. He and Republicans have been just as “engaged” as Democrats over the past year. He doesn’t want to be “engaged” with running the government? Fine. Then Mitch McConnell and every Republican refusing to vote to keep government running should resign…and let people hold those offices who won’t destroy the nation.

Mitch McConnell voted 32 times in the past to raise the debt ceiling. He voted to raise it three times under Trump. This is like his position against filling Supreme Court vacancies during an election unless it’s filled by a Republican. Now, he’s floating the idea that if the GOP regains the Senate next year, that they won’t ever allow President Biden to fill a Supreme Court seat, like he did in President Obama’s last year. Pretty soon, the rule’s going to be that only Republicans can fill SCOTUS seats…fuck what the Constitution says.

Republicans are not the party of fiscal responsibility. They’re not constitutionalists. What are they? They’re terrorists.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are FIVE copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403.

Watch me draw:

Kickin’ It With Chuck And Nancy

cjones09112017

To help set the proper mood, THIS is the music for the first panel, and THIS is the music for the second.

An expression I’m sick and tired of is “nothing burger.” It’s popular with conservatives, who also love “fake news.” Both terms are often used together, as in “this Russian collusion story is a nothing burger and fake news.” Leave it to Republicans to muck up their metaphors since neither can actually exist. Technically, if it’s fake then it’s not news, and if there’s nothing on that burger then how can it be a burger? You can’t give me two slices of bread and tell me that’s a sandwich.

When someone describes something as a “nothing burger,” that just means there’s a lot of shit on that burger. Or, when they say “fake news,” you might wanna check to make sure we’re not at Defcon Five. It’s kinda like when George W. Bush said the Keystone Pipeline was a “no brainer,” when it was actually something that you might want to apply some brains to….or Donald Trump’s use of “believe me” is his way of saying “I’m lying my ass off and I should probably go to prison for this shit.”

The great deal maker that is Donald Trump totally caved into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. He did it on his own turf, the Oval Office, and in front of Majority Leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. I think Anthony Scaramucci must have left his “front-stabbing” knife in the White House because Trump took it and cut Ryan and McConnell’s guts out.

But you know, maybe if you had to choose between making a deal with Democrats or guys who look like Eddie Munster and a turtle, you’d deal with the Democrats too.

Trump’s deal with Chuck and Nancy was to kick the can of the debt ceiling down the road for three months which will keep the government running and to provide disaster relief for the hurricanes. While Republicans are howling in protest, it might be the first smart thing Trump has done and is in the best interest of the country.

Why? For starters, Democrats round up their votes. Republicans are herding cats. Really stupid cats. The other reason it was a smart deal is that over 100 Republicans voted against disaster relief…including several from Texas and Florida. I told you them cats be stupid. They also have back-stabbing knives they use on their constituents.

Republicans are surprised that Trump sold them out. It’s kinda like being surprised that Donald Trump is a Nazi-hugging bigot after he just spent the last two years attacking Mexicans, Muslims, women, transgenders, etc.

The guy who had to eat the most poo was Paul Ryan. Mitch McConnell has been eating it for a while. But, Ryan really had to master some spin on this deal. Before the deal was made Ryan described the Democrats’ proposal as “ridiculous.” The day after he was spinning it as Trump wanting a “bipartisan response and not a food fight on the timing of the debt limit.” Paul, there is a food fight but it’s not food your party is throwing.

Paul Ryan had a reputation for being intelligent, and he was known as a policy wonk. Now he’s coming off like that kid you knew in high school who required seven attempts to get his learners permit. Ryan’s driving into trees and snow banks.

Every Republican exposed their backside to Trump’s treachery when they got in bed with him, and they’re all dumbasses, but Ryan was supposed to be the smart one. Since Ryan can’t legislate or lead his party then he’s no different or better than say, a Mitch McConnell. Mitch can’t accomplish shit either. How’s that Obamacare repeal working out? Are you tired of winning yet?

Trump wanted to win, and to win he had to play with Democrats. Maybe he is learning on the job. Making deals with the opposition party worked for Reagan, Clinton, Bush I, and Bush II. The Republicans problem is that they’re just not as smart as the Democrats…and that’s not exactly a high bar for comparison.

Now if only Republicans could be as upset about Trump’s collusion with Putin as they are for his dancing with Chuck and Nancy.

Creative notes: I had to Google some weird stuff for this cartoon. I’m not alone in this house and I had my door open so cats could run in and out and not sit outside my shut door meowing to come in. So, I was afraid someone would walk by or visit just as I was looking up outfits for Vladimir and Trump. There are two ladies in this house and I’m not sure they’d buy the “researching for work” excuse.

Another concern was “boogers” and “cat poop.” I know some editors are skittish and that could kill this cartoon, but then I realized, if they get past the feather duster then I probably don’t have to worry about the boogers or cat poop.

I want to thank everyone who has donated in the past. Your support helps me continue creating cartoons and columns with a little less stress in my life. Between competing syndicates with much larger resources, timid editors, and Trump supporters who attempt to intimidate the editors who do publish anything that criticizes their idol, it’s a challenge to make a career out of this. So your support (if you can) is appreciated. Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing (pissing off conservatives)? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through PayPal. Every $40 donation will receive a signed print. All donations will receive my eternal gratitude.

It’s Raining Mayhem

cjones09082017

I consider myself a well-read person. I read into every issue I cover, and I go down internet worm holes and read stuff that’s not important to anybody. I know stuff. But, there’s a lot of stuff I will never understand.

I don’t understand why now is the best time to revoke DACA, and threaten to deport around 800,000 young adults who were brought to this nation by no choice of their own when they were children. Trump says he only wants people who are educated, working, and can be a benefit to this nation…so why kick 800,000 people out who fit those guidelines? I guess I can understand it if the explanation is that Donald Trump is racist toward brown people. Even if he’s not, his base is racist.

I don’t understand why we’re talking about pumping billions into a useless wall on the border that can be circumvented by a $45 ladder when FEMA is about to run out of money from rebuilding American cities struck by two major hurricanes. I do understand that it’s feeding a racist base, but I don’t understand why anyone, even racists, support something so expensive and useless.

I don’t understand why we argue about the debt ceiling each time it comes up. It’s money that was already agreed upon. I do understand why Republicans wanted to use it to shut down the government during the Obama era, as they were just total obstructionist and hated everything connected to Obama. But why are they threatening a government shutdown while they have the House, Senate, and White House? Don’t Republicans understand they control the government? I do understand why Trump made the magic-bean deal with Democrats, and that’s because he’s not a great deal maker. It was great for Democrats and the nation, but not for Republicans. I think Trump made that deal because if the negotiations were to continue, trying to understand how the debt ceiling works would have confused and exposed him. That, or he was too busy ogling his daughter who had walked into the room. Ew.

I don’t understand people who still deny Climate Change. I understand why Republicans oppose it, as they’re funded by oil companies. I understand why conservative think tanks continue to claim it’s a hoax because they’re funded by oil companies. I do understand why Donald Trump believes it’s a hoax created by China, and that’s because he’s an idiot. An editor wrote me a couple days ago and said he’d never run my work because it’s so divisive. Yeah, OK. But I’m not so divisive that I made the weather and climate partisan issues.

I don’t understand why people listen to Rush Limbaugh. I actually worked with two, TWO, editorial writers at The Free Lance-Star who listened to Rush on a daily basis. The man proves time and time again that he’s an idiot, and he doesn’t understand how anything works in the real world. Yesterday, he told his listeners that these hurricanes are never as bad as advertised, and it’s a conspiracy between the media and advertisers who sell stuff during an impending disaster. I guess Rush didn’t watch any of the footage from Houston. Was Harvey not as bad as advertised? I thought it was actually worse.

Would Rush be pushing this theory if he was still hawking Florida orange juice? Years ago he briefly pitched the orange stuff until the company that hired him realized that most people hate Rush. Most would rather throw oranges at him than take his suggestions on what to drink.

The real danger with Rush is that there are idiots who will believe him. Rush may have put stupid people’s lives in danger. Now that I think about it, it might even out. The one question I want answered is; Will Rush evacuate his Palm Beach home, or will he sit on the beach screaming for Irma to bring it on? I challenge him to do a live show from his front porch during the hurricane. He should put his money where his fat-ass mouth is.

I don’t understand Florida. It’s a really weird place. I don’t understand why people retire to live among giant, flying, creepy, stingy, buzzy things. I don’t like bugs. Reptiles, I can deal with. Currently, there’s a really long fuzzy centipede thingy with antennas and a gazillion legs in my shower that someone needs to come over here and kill it for me.

I don’t understand why there’s only one road out of the Florida Keys. I realize it’s a very long road and it’s difficult to build bridges going over seven miles from island to island, but wouldn’t that be much easier logistically than wasting billions on a wall on the Mexican border that goes over mountains, deserts, rivers, and private property? Hurricane Andrew hit 25 years ago. Couldn’t there have been another road constructed in that time frame? Florida, stop electing Republicans who look like Voldemort.

What I don’t understand is why people are at the stores fighting over bottled water at this time. Their water at home has not been turned off yet. Are we such a spoiled, first-world nation that we’d rather punch a guy over a bottle of Dasani, Voss, or Fiji water than to drink out of the tap? By the way, your tap water’s PH level is around 8.0. Dasani is 4.5, Voss is 6.0, and Fiji is 7.5. That stuff from Walmart is 6.5. In a natural disaster, I think you’ll be OK if you drink from the tap for a few days.

Lastly, what I really don’t understand are Trump sycophants. I understand partisanship, spin, and even loyalty. What I don’t understand is tying your little row boat to a sinking yacht. Everyone has flaws and defects, but Trump is just one big defect. The man has proven he is not anything he’s boasted about himself. He doesn’t know more than the generals. He doesn’t understand how government works. He’s not a great deal maker. He doesn’t have the best brain. He doesn’t have the best words. He didn’t even write the book he brags about writing. If we attached a disaster rating system to human beings, Trump would be a category five.

I don’t understand people who believe Obama is a Muslim, but think Trump is a Christian. I get the worship of a cult of personality….but why of a personality that is so stupid? Some people don’t understand why Trump’s attack on veterans didn’t kill his campaign, or his mocking a handicapped reporter, or his “pussy grabbing,” or the racism, or the stupidity and the not knowing anything. For me, I don’t understand why the ridiculous hair didn’t kill the campaign. This man actually chooses to look the way he does. Would you vote for a guy who knew he had a booger hanging and didn’t do anything about it?

Even if you’re a racist, you’d think you’d find a much more competent racist to follow. There are plenty of racists out there who are able to hide it better and are not displaying it on Twitter on a daily basis. I don’t believe that everyone who voted and supports Trump is a racist. But, I don’t understand why racism is not a deal breaker for the rest of them.

Trump understands two things, and that’s marketing his name and his debt. But even the stuff he’s marketed has gone under. And understanding how to make other people pay for your debt doesn’t mean you understand the federal debt. We’re not gonna get Russian banks to finance the border wall. Quite frankly, I’d be surprised if Trump is capable of dressing himself and tying his shoes.

Regarding Irma: I have friends in Florida. If you’re down there, get out. I do hope the hurricane spares the state from the brunt of its devastation. And if you’re staying, you can drink the tap water. You’ll be fine.

I want to thank everyone who has donated in the past. Your support helps me continue creating cartoons and columns with a little less stress in my life. Between competing syndicates with much larger resources, timid editors, and Trump supporters who attempt to intimidate the editors who do publish anything that criticizes their idol, it’s a challenge to make a career out of this. So your support (if you can) is appreciated. Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing (pissing off conservatives)? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through PayPal. Every $40 donation will receive a signed print. All donations will receive my eternal gratitude.