Joe Biden refuses to accept the economic facts of life. He’s long been an advocate of spending our way out of bankruptcy and thinks he can strong arm both houses of Congress into letting him keep printing more cash. After more than three months of ducking a meeting with Kevin McCarthy, he finally agreed to one on Tuesday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be sitting in.
Biden won’t back down
Joe Biden thinks he can pressure both the House and Senate into giving him a “clean” bill to kick the budget deadline down the road. The only thing he has to offer is a “promise” to cut some spending later. That’s not going to fly.
No matter what the spin doctors say on TV, any default on the national debt will be squarely on Joe Biden’s shoulders for failing to negotiate in good faith when he had the chance.
The House did their part and passed a spending bill. One that includes a whole bunch of budget slashing which infuriates Democrats. That’s mostly because it’s their pork which got slashed out of the spending plans. Biden thinks he can pressure the Senate into extending the deadline but they aren’t budging.
WTF? Biden's Treasury Secretary is warning the U.S. is just days away from running out of money to service our debt. Biden refuses to sign the debt ceiling increase passed by the House. Meanwhile, Biden is announcing ANOTHER $1.2B in aid for Zelensky?!?!https://t.co/mpd2bLkQ1N pic.twitter.com/kKTnH8mEg4
— @amuse (@amuse) May 9, 2023
Mitch McConnell decided to get behind Kevin McCarthy and insist on seeing the cuts before they approve anything. This can’s been kicked so far down the road that there’s nothing left to kick. All the way back in 2014 Barack Obama got away with that and everyone’s been doing it since.
CNN is calling it a “stalemate.” They think Joe can wave his magic pen or force the Senate to smack some sense into the House. It’s not going to work.
“A path forward to raising the debt ceiling remains unclear. House Republicans want to attach spending reductions to a debt ceiling increase and have passed a debt limit plan that does just that. But Biden and congressional Democrats are insisting on passing a clean increase on the debt limit before addressing a framework for spending.”
McConnell not helping
Progressives were counting on Mitch McConnell for his reputation as “a Senate deal maker with stronger ties to Biden than McCarthy.” Not this time. Tooter the Turtle has already “signaled that he won’t come to rescue Democrats in negotiations.”
He supposedly told Joe in private “that it was up to him and McCarthy to come to an agreement.” He told the press officially on Monday that Joe’s handlers need to get with McCarthy’s team, “sit down now and settle it.”
Nobody in the Republican half of the Senate will go near it, other than six well known RINOs like Mitt Romney, who should be registered as Democrat anyway. The rest of Republicans “have vowed to oppose raising the debt ceiling without substantive spending and budget reforms.”
1) Joe Biden purposefully refused to handle the debt ceiling 6 months ago when his party controlled the House & Senate.
2) On day one, Joe Biden said he would NOT negotiate with House Republicans on the debt ceiling.
3) The House did OUR job.
4) Biden & DEMS don't have a plan. pic.twitter.com/ILouQEcixj
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) May 9, 2023
They stand solidly behind McCarthy. Joe Biden is going frantic now because he’s refusing to cut anything. He wants an extension to take the pressure off before the whole thing blows sky high. Conservatives say “cover your ears and duck.” They would rather pick up the pieces afterward.
Palace Propaganda Minister Karine Jean-Pierre frantically blamed everything on those insisting on fiscal responsibility. “It’s Congress’ constitutional duty to act to prevent default. That’s what the president’s going to be very clear about.”
They tried to engage Biden in negotiations over what to cut and he ignored them for the past 100 days. Suddenly, it’s an emergency. “Congress must avoid default without conditions,” Jean-Pierre insists. She doesn’t have any way to force them into it though.
