All Republicans agree that they want to put millions of Americans out of work

They just disagree on how many millions.

My new piece for John Stoehr’s Editorial Board argues that the first intentional default in American history is not only likely, it’s inevitable—unless very powerful people begin to take this threat very seriously very soon.

Right now, elites are making the same mistake they made before the J6 insurrection. The same members of Congress who were cheering on the attempted coup are now drooling over debt default and the chaos it would bring. And the one person who can save us from a default is the most prominent coward in American life since Jefferson Davis fled in his wife’s dress: Kevin McCarty, our barely Speaker of the House.

You can debate who’s right about the impending debt limit crisis: me or our political class, which largely doesn’t seem worried at all. But one thing you can’t debate at all is that Republicans want to put millions of Americans out of work.

They just have some disagreement on how many millions.

As Senator Elizabeth Warren made very clear on Tuesday, Jerome Powell, the Republican chair of the Federal Reserve wants to throw at least 2 million Americans out of their jobs with his plan to “tame” inflation.

House Republicans, who are demanding massive cuts in order to agree to raise the debt limit and pay the bills Congress has already approved, want to put 2.6 million Americans out of work and nearly double the unemployment rate.

And the hardcore Trumpy House Republicans — many of whom toyed with Speaker McCarthy during his 15 attempts to win enough votes to get his dream job — want to unemploy up to 7 million Americans with an extended debt default.

Putting millions of our fellow citizens out of work is that only thing Republican Party is good at. They just seamlessly transition from “accidentally” blowing up the economy when they’re in power to purposely blowing it up when they’re not.