Democrats give up on lifting the debt ceiling in the lame duck
I can hardly believe this. I guess Joe Manchin really has decided that he wants to work with Republicans to cut social security and Medicare — and god knows what else. Sinema and some others as well. So this is where we are:
The White House has largely given up hope of Congress raising the nation’s debt limit during the lame-duck session that runs through late December, increasing the risk of a highly partisan, market-rattling fiscal confrontation next year.
Senior administration officials see little chance of attracting any Republican votes for a bipartisan debt limit hike during the short session. And they don’t believe they have the 50 Democratic Senate votes needed to slam through a hike using the budget reconciliation process that would allow them to avoid a Republican filibuster.
“We’d love to do the debt limit. That doesn’t magically create the votes to get the debt limit done,” said one frustrated senior White House official.
The administration has determined that if it were to go the reconciliation route on the debt limit, it would face likely opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). And there could be other defectors. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants a bipartisan vote to raise the borrowing cap during the lame-duck session. But Republicans, many of whom are eager to use the limit as leverage to extract legislative concessions from Democrats in the next Congress, have shown no appetite for any such bipartisan approach.
“I don’t think the debt limit issue is until sometime next year,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday in response to a question about whether he would address it in the lame duck.
Apparently, Democratic leadership thinks this will work for them politically:
That’s left White House officials to all but abandon efforts for a lame-duck move they once hoped might head off a potentially disastrous showdown with the House GOP majority next year. Instead, officials now predict Republicans will get blamed if a bitter fight on the issue harms already choppy markets and further damages an economy that many economists see as close to a recession.
Oh I’m sure it will be super helpful to the Democrats if the world economy crashes. Super helpful. Because if there’s one thing you want in a fragile recovery is Marjorie Taylor Green and Tommy Turberville playing games with the full faith and credit of the United States.
Maybe they have no choice because of Manchin and Sinema. But damn … this is very, very bad.