If anyone was thinking (as I was) that the so-called GOP moderates who won in swing districts carried by Biden would sign on to a discharge petition early enough to have it work (it’s a long arduous process) we all need to wake up. They are going to drag out “negotiations” to cut the shit out of government programs that benefit actual humans (that’s what they all live for) and then it will be too late:
House Republicans from swing districts are flatly rejecting the White House’s position that there be no negotiations with Congress over raising the national debt ceiling, insisting that they won’t bend to the Democrats’ take-it-or-leave-it approach to avoid the first-ever debt default with no conditions attached.
The Republicans, many of whom hail from districts that President Joe Biden won or narrowly lost and are seen as the most likely to break ranks with their party’s leadership, said they are not willing to back a “clean” debt ceiling increase, insisting there must be some fiscal agreement first. That view is in line with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is calling for negotiations with the White House before a possible default occurs later this year.
But the White House and Senate Democratic leaders, wary of the ferocious fiscal fights with the House GOP that dogged then-President Barack Obama, see little upside in giving in to any of the GOP demands to impose spending cuts on domestic programs, believing instead that McCarthy and Republicans will cave facing the prospect of a looming default and with no viable legislative alternative.
The White House is badly miscalculating, Republicans say.
“I don’t think that a clean debt ceiling is in order, and I certainly don’t think that a default is in order,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate whose Pennsylvania district Biden carried, told CNN, indicating he planned to engage in bipartisan talks next week over a compromise proposal when lawmakers return to Washington.
The early back-and-forth underscores how Washington is heading into a period of deep uncertainty with global ramifications – with a newly empowered House GOP majority eager to use its leverage in the debt limit fight to enact priorities that otherwise would be ignored by the Democrats running the Senate and the White House. Some congressional sources in both parties believe that McCarthy may ultimately be jammed by the Senate and forced to vote on a bipartisan compromise crafted in that chamber, though that scenario would take weeks if not months to play out.
To work around McCarthy, Democrats would need to win over some potential GOP swing votes to sign on to a “discharge petition,” which could force a House floor vote if six Republicans signed on to the effort with the 212 Democrats currently in the chamber.
Republicans insist there’s little chance of that tactic succeeding at the moment – especially if it’s to force a vote on a clean debt ceiling increase with no other conditions or concessions.
“I’m not in favor of Biden’s no-negotiating strategy, and I’m not inclined to help,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican whose Nebraska district Biden carried, indicating Republicans campaigned against government spending and inflation. “The GOP can’t demand the moon, and Biden can’t refuse to negotiate. There needs to be give-and-take on both sides.”
Bacon said there needs to be “good faith” talks with the White House and some “commitment for fiscal restraint” before he would even consider signing onto a discharge petition.
Democrats are supremely confident that the Republicans will be blamed for the standoff and that this will benefit them in the 2024 election. In fact, many of them didn’t even try to convince Sinemanchin to raise it in the lame duck because they are so sure that everything will turn out all right and the GOP will be blamed for any fallout from the hostage taking.
I hope they’re right. But what this suggests is that some Democrats (I’m looking at you Chris Coons) actually wanted this stand-off so they could justify cutting spending. They had to know that they would end up at the negotiating table and if past is prologue, the GOP may pay a political price, but the American people will pay a price too. The last time we barely escaped without cuts to Medicare and Social Security — which the White House endorsed! Luckily the nutcases refused to take yes for an answer and wanted even more. Let’s just see if this ends up on the menu again.
You can bet the media will be cheering it on. They already are. On CNN this morning they were all wringing their hands over the White House “refusing to negotiate in good faith” (to slash the budget to appease the unappeasable.) They are already insisting that the White House must meet the crazed terrorists halfway.
Hoping the wingnuts refuse to take yes for an answer to the worst of it again is not a plan. The last time we ended up with sequestration which delayed the recovery from the financial crisis by years — until Donald Trump came in and took credit for it.