The Debt Ceiling fiscal cliff is looming. And since there’s offline negotiations going on as in the past, Biden will eventually offer a compromise on spending. It will include some things that Democrats care about, and that will make his base angry. Meanwhile, the few remaining establishment Republicans will be happy to take the deal, while the Freedom Caucus (now the mainstream of the GOP) will be outraged that the deal on the table isn’t what they originally asked for.
They’d rather blow up America’s credit standing if Biden fails to agree to roll back his legislative successes. That will put us back to square one with days to go before default.
If you remember the Debt Ceiling debates in 2013, the Freedom Caucus was willing to shut down the government, put the US credit rating in the dumper and possibly default. In 2013, Obama refused to negotiate with them over the debt ceiling, saying that the previous cuts that had been made through in the “sequester” in 2011 were plenty of compromise.
Both sides extended the Debt Ceiling in small increments over many months before they finally passed a clean bill in 2014. While the media said it was a loss for Republicans, the GOP won the presidency and both houses in 2016. So fasten your seat belts. What probably will happen is that either Kevin McCarthy will let the country default, or he’ll put some kind of deal on the table that will pass with bipartisan votes.
If it’s the latter, one or more of the now mainstream GOP will make a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair and McCarthy will follow John Boehner out the door. On to cartoons.
The state of the union:
The real situation:
Santos indicted:
Trump loses in Court:
Trump supporters need bigger tee shirts:
Wishes for Mother’s Day:
The debt ceiling is a forever sword of Damocles that the GOP uses to crush the Democratic agenda, even when Dems are successful. The Democrats could do it too but the GOP wants so little that it is hard to know what would work.