The latest and, perhaps, last James Bond movie with Daniel Craig portraying the legendary British spy is smashing box-office records as it gets a rolling opening across the world. That pretty much guarantees that, with or without Craig, the franchise will continue into its 26th iteration.
If the Bond writing team is running out of fresh ideas for an amoral, ruthless villain who wears expensive suits, has a strange appearance and hides out in a distinctive lair, they should consider casting Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate Republican leader from Kentucky. He’s got the tailored clothes. He’s got a face that reminds many people of a turtle. And his headquarters is right inside the U.S. Capitol — a perfect place to plot global chaos.
In the last few weeks, McConnell courted disaster by refusing to allow a vote to raise the federal debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is a useless limit on government spending that needs to be raised periodically because, if it is not, the government will default on its many enormous debts. The result would be economic calamity in America and around the world. McConnell was willing to risk such a catastrophe simply to score political points by making Democrats look like big spenders.
Of course, when McConnell was majority leader and Donald Trump was president, Republicans were throwing away money as fast as big-spending liberals and had no problem raising the debt limit for themselves. Now, though, the other party is in charge and, even though the current debts owed were largely racked up by Republicans, McConnell is pretending to suddenly care about deficits.
This is hardly the first time McConnell has engaged in rank hypocrisy, nor the only time he has put the narrow interests of his caucus ahead of the citizens of this country. And it will not be the last. To put off a fiscal debacle, McConnell agreed to delay this showdown until Dec. 3 when, in addition to dealing with the debt ceiling, a new federal budget must also be approved.
That’ll be a blockbuster sequel fraught with peril worthy of James Bond. Count on McConnell to once again play his villainous role.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
Discussion about this post