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THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS — As the Default Clock Ticks - What's The Bottom Line? [1]

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Date: 2023-05-23

While we all sit around and wait to see if the economic nuclear bomb explodes or is defused, I thought I would do Some Pondering on Debt Ceiling Negotiations.

What has me the most perplexed and worried is, What is Biden’s bottom line?

He has already offered to freeze Federal spending for Fiscal 2024 at present 2023 levels, without any movement by McCarthy, so now what?



Emerging from his one on one meeting with Biden yesterday, McCarthy said this (paraphrasing):

We are in perfect agreement on what we are in disagreement about, but we have no agreement at this time.

Here we are several weeks into negotiations and only now at this minutes before economic doom does McCarthy have a clear understanding about what the disagreements are! Not encouraging!

Back to Biden’s bottom line. I have no idea where it is, only that it is not the devastating POS Bill passed by the House. I do get what Biden is trying to do, which is kill two birds with one stone. Getting a budget deal now with respect to the debt ceiling avoids another GOP hostage taking in September when the current fiscal year expires. I only hope that Biden realizes that he has the upper hand in the negotiations.



For one, he can always push McCarthy to the curb and negotiate with the 10 to 14 House Republicans from Biden won Districts to get them to sign the Discharge Petition for the Democrats clean debt ceiling raise bill. And then of course there is an Executive Order based on the 14th amendment.

McCarthy has no such options.

I do think that Biden is aware that he has other options and has the upper hand in negotiations over the debt ceiling. But I think he does not (yet) want to give up on the chance to kill two birds with one stone as described above. If he avoids default but fails to get a budget deal now, he will have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown in the Fall where he will have no Executive authority to avoid.

Stay tuned, the default clock is ticking.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/23/2170879/-THIS-WEEK-IN-CONGRESS-As-the-Default-Clock-Ticks-What-s-The-Bottom-Line

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