President Joe Biden is negotiating with Kevin McCarthy over the debt ceiling but Republicans are making a default more likely with their demands.
President Joe Biden is exactly where he didn’t want to be at this stage of his presidency: sitting across the negotiating table from Republicans with the global economy being held hostage. The memory of the last time this circus played out a decade ago, and the regret over not raising the debt ceiling unilaterally while they could, have both put a bitter taste in many Democrats’ mouths. But Plan A — insist on a clean raising of the debt ceiling, period — collapsed once Speaker Kevin McCarthy actually managed to pass a bill through the GOP-led House.
Now the days keep slipping away before the United States finds itself utterly unable to pay its bills. Plan A may be off the table (for now), but there are several other backup plans currently in the works. Unfortunately, none of them are showing much promise as of Tuesday evening, leaving the odds that America defaults for the first time ever to slowly tick higher.
Any solution to come out of Congress will involve agreement between House Republicans and Senate Democrats — and at least a few votes from the opposite parties in each chamber. But that’s far easier said than done. The GOP is bent on extracting concessions in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Among the demands in the bill passed last month: cutting nonmilitary spending below current levels; adding new work requirements to Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits; making it easier for oil companies to get permits for drilling. Democrats’ suggestions of new ways to boost revenue are nonstarters, with Republicans insisting that the poor suffer while the rich pay not a penny more in taxes. McCarthy has also ruled out any cuts to the defense budget or Social Security and Medicare, leaving any impact on the debt and/or deficit negligible without massive cuts to every other part of the discretionary budget.
And through all these negotiations, McCarthy still has his right flank to deal with. While it’s currently singing his praises, members of the House Freedom Caucus are insisting that the bill that the House passed is the least that they’ll support. Some are advocating for pressing for even greater concessions, like folding in a harsh border security bill that the House passed earlier this month.
