The debt ceiling compromise between McCarthy and Biden shows that the conservative Republicans are the foxes in the henhouse. McCarthy (whose net worth is $30 million) and Co. want to claw back monies already allocated to the IRS to pursue tax cheats, reneging on a deal made last year. In addition, these same Republican foxes are dead set against any increase in taxes for the wealthy. Two ways that the government could increase revenue are stonewalled by the very ones who benefit the most from the stonewall; the wealthy House representatives who would be taxed and whose tax loopholes and dodges would be closed. Conflict of interest? That’s just the cost of doing business. We lose. They win. Yet the businesses whose stocks are no doubt featured in these legislators’ portfolios preserve their profit margins and stock values by raising prices to cover costs. That’s okay. But these same Republicans who are happy to pocket these portfolio profits are loath to allow the government this same freedom, to increase revenue to fund obligations. This is hypocrisy at its finest. These Republicans are creating an untenable underfunding situation that guarantees failure, all in the name of, what? Clearly not sound fiscal principles, given the free pass they promoted during the previous Republican administration. And McCarthy, who sold his soul to the Freedom Caucus for the Speaker’s gavel, will be reluctant to antagonize this faction by allowing any significant revenue compromise from the Republican side. We the People are being set up for the economic fall, collateral damage caused by conservative Republicans who want to see a Democratic administration fail, no matter the consequences, leaving the rest of us to pick up the economic pieces the best we can despite the stacked debt these Republicans want to deal.