Shutdown Countdown, Con't

With a week to go until the US defaults and the economy collapses, Kevin McCarthy and the GOP Circus of the Damned are only adding more and more hostage demands or they shoot America in the head and leave us to die on the side of the road.

During a closed meeting Tuesday morning at a GOP hangout a block from the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made a pointed plea: Do not break ranks over the debt ceiling crisis.

Ahead of another round of negotiations with the White House, McCarthy told Republicans they had the upper hand in the discussions and encouraged his members to show their support for colleagues facing tough reelection bids next year as a sign of unity, according to two people in attendance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talk. McCarthy urged members to make sure vulnerable lawmakers would have plenty of campaign money from GOP coffers — even pledging that they would not be outraised by their opponents in the 2024 election cycle, the people said of the meeting, which took place at the Capitol Hill Club. (McCarthy’s office declined to comment.)

The overture reflects the GOP’s determination to stay unified behind spending cuts even as the nation heads toward the brink of a default, despite a rapidly approaching deadline, a White House suddenly eager to compromise and a Democratic-led effort to push a petition that could force a vote on raising the debt ceiling over McCarthy’s objections.

After refusing to negotiate for months, President Biden’s aides last week offered the GOP substantial concessions on the federal budget — including a freeze on spending for two years — that nonpartisan estimates have projected could cut deficits by as much as $1 trillion over the next decade.

House Republicans do appear willing to drop some provisions in a bill the chamber approved last month to raise the debt ceiling, especially a call for Biden to abandon his student loan forgiveness program and to cancel some green energy tax credits. But they’re also determined to push for more concessions that weren’t even in that legislation. Not only have they ruled out Biden’s proposals to increase revenue by closing tax loopholes — traditionally a part of bipartisan deals to lower the deficit — but they are also insisting on increasing spending on the military, homeland security and veterans services while cutting funds for domestic programs. That would be a change from how a similar standoff was resolved in 2011, when the last bipartisan bill to raise the debt limit and cut spending passed — the Budget Control Act, which affected defense and nondefense budgets equally.

Asked Tuesday evening what Republicans were offering to get Democratic votes, Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) gave a brief answer: “The debt ceiling.”

“That’s what they’re getting,” added Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.).

 

All this makes much more sense when you realize that House Republicans, and especially McCarthy, do not want a debt ceiling deal. What they want is another Covid-19 moment to hit the economy and to cost it 20 million jobs so they can blame President Biden. They want payback for what they see as a deliberate act to wreck Trump's "Best US economy ever", so they are going to manufacture a collapse to do just that.

 

The other issue is McCarthy knows any compromise that Democrats actually accept will cost him his job as Speaker. 

McCarthy and his top lieutenants have in recent days said the White House needs to agree to cut spending, not just keep it flat. The House GOP’s representatives have panned Biden’s negotiators, saying the White House isn’t showing enough urgency or sending people empowered to cut a deal. (White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday the claim was “ridiculous.”)

The standoff is increasing the chances lawmakers do not reach agreement by June 1, when the Treasury Department says the government could run out of money.

McCarthy’s hard line reflects the immense internal pressure he faces from far-right members who want aggressive budget cuts.

He must appease some of the demands made by the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which continues to insist that the House-passed legislation from last month should simply become law. But Biden and Senate Democrats have already said that won’t happen, which means GOP House leaders are trying to cut a bipartisan deal that can get a majority of their own lawmakers and also attract enough Democratic votes to pass. Without the Freedom Caucus, Republicans wouldn’t have 218 votes to raise the debt ceiling.

Getting a “majority of the majority,” a longtime GOP House principle, requires leaders to nudge legislation to the right. And conservatives worry that the party might get steamrolled in the negotiations. Adding a potential complication, McCarthy agreed when he was seeking conservative support for the speakership in January to allow any one House member to move to oust him. So far, though, the far-right bloc has not yet publicly discussed the option of forcing McCarthy from power.

 

So far.  That ends the moment he has to hold a must-pass vote to keep the country from blowing up and everyone knows it.

 

No, my prediction that there won't be a deal still holds, and the pressure this week on the White House to cave to massive spending cuts that will collapse the economy anyway will become shrill and deafening in the next few days.