Debt Ceiling Deal?

 

 

The "negotiations" with the hostage takers may have come to a head:

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reached an “agreement in principle” on Saturday to raise the debt ceiling and cap federal spending, clinching a critical first step toward preventing a government default that could be nine days away.

The agreement offers Congress a road map for averting a fiscal crisis: It preserves the country’s ability to borrow money into 2025, resets the budgets at a broad swath of federal agencies and institutes new work requirements on some Americans who receive federal nutrition assistance known as food stamps.

The full details were not immediately clear Saturday night, as lawmakers had yet to introduce any legislative text. But it arrives more than four months after Republicans assumed control of the House in January and plotted a strategy to leverage the debt ceiling to achieve their policy agenda — ignoring repeated warnings that their brinkmanship could plunge the country into a recession.

The fate of the deal now rests in the hands of a restive Congress, where Democrats and Republicans began raising objections hours before their leaders struck their bargain. The blowback underscores the difficult task Biden and McCarthy face to muscle any legislation through the pitfall-prone, narrowly divided House and Senate with roughly a week to spare... (our emphasis)

We'll withhold final judgement until we see some details, but having gone from a "no negotiating with hostage takers" to "here's the deal, take it," this is going to be a (big or small) shit sandwich under any circumstances and one that will be questioned on policy grounds and as a political tactic for a long time.  But political reality demands Dems support their President, no matter how distasteful the "deal," and live to fight another day.  Let's keep our powder dry for now, Dems.

BONUS:  On a positive note, the coup caucus is apoplectic --

 

Bob Good, member of Freedom Caucus who voted for GOP debt bill, says if final deal resembles how talks are going, then it would "collapse" the GOP majority.

Ralph Norman, another Freedom Caucus member, says: "It looks like we are watering it down, which is not acceptable" pic.twitter.com/TdgXOt09O8

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 25, 2023

 

BONUS II:

 

Summary of deal as I understand it:
— Debt ceiling raised 2 years
— Domestic programs frozen next year, up 1% ‘25. Inflation-adjusted cut
— Boosts defense, VA $
— Some tightening of work requirements on TANF, SNAP
— Energy permitting (details tbd)
— Claw back some new IRS $

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) May 28, 2023

(Photo:  Hostage taker and ransom payer/ Alex Brandon, AP)