At least Janet Yellen is upfront about the Biden Administration’s priorities. You have to tip your hat and applaud the honesty.

The stupidity of what she said? That, not so much.

.@SecYellen admits she plans to default on the debt so she can keep spending on "clean energy." pic.twitter.com/gNY01Ypn6b

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 8, 2023

First of all, you should always take catastrophism about a debt default with a grain of salt. It is, indeed, true that a default on the US debt would be a catastrophe. It would put the final nail in the coffin for the status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency, although Biden’s policies have been accelerating the process for that eventual outcome at an alarming rate.

Still, a default here and now would truly be world-shaking in a way that no other country’s default would be.

But we have this fight all the time, and it always goes down to the wire. The big difference this time is that Biden is senile, and has never been a smart guy. So maybe he will drive the country into the ditch this time. In a rational world, most debt limit ceiling debates are political theater.

The Republicans have staked out a rational position, which is something of a surprise. Usually they just bitch and posture, so this is a breath of fresh air.

And while the media will back Biden to the hilt the House actually has some solid ground to stand on. Biden, not so much.

He has, apparently, clean energy. Really. That is what Janet Yellen is going with. Biden is willing to default on America’s debt to ensure that subsidies for clean energy increase.

It’s a pretty weird argument, although it does lend credibility to the idea that these people actually enjoy the smell of their own farts. They truly believe that spending a few billion more on worthless clean energy projects is worth wrecking the US economy, or at least that the American people might think so.

I’m pretty sure that argument isn’t going to fly outside the confines of an Antifa meeting or a faculty lounge discussion. They are about the only people who think that a few more solar panels and windmills are worth blowing up the US economy. Heck, they see blowing up the US economy as a worthy end in itself, so any excuse is a good one for them.

The average American? Not so much.

The Republicans are always behind the 8-ball on fights like this because no matter what they do they are portrayed as the obstructionists. Democrats make demands, refuse to negotiate, and Republicans are supposed to take it or leave it. If they don’t take it then any consequences are their fault because…well, they are, dammit! Republicans are evil, and Democrats shouldn’t HAVE to discuss anything with them.

One fly in the ointment for Biden, though, is that everybody hates him and thinks he is an incompetent, senile boob without the common sense of a lobotomized frog, so his bargaining position is quite weak. When even somebody who is promoted as super-smart, like Yellen, can only come up with “we want solar panels” it’s difficult to see how such an argument wins.

But we shouldn’t underestimate the willingness of Biden’s team to destroy things to get their way. Every step along the way during his administration Biden has careened from preventable disaster to preventable disaster, and all that experience doesn’t deter them from making yet another stupid move. They are addicted to it, or so determined to push through their agenda that they perform the political equivalent of the human wave attacks of World War I Europe or the battle of Iwo Jima.

This may turn out to be yet another example of suicidal hubris, and it is all over solar panels and windmills.

I would bet against a default, but if one comes you can at least be sure it was in a good cause: subsidizing windmills.