Senate Republicans Insist House GOP Take Lead On Debt Ceiling Talks. So We're All Doomed.

Debt ceiling update!

The US government banged its collective head on the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling last week, and while the Treasury Department has performed assorted sleights of hands to cover the debt, that's only bought us another few months. If Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling by June, the federal government won't be able to pay its obligations, including Social Security and Medicare. A default would also have global consequences, impacting nations with actual functioning governments.

This regularly scheduled ordeal is not about new federal spending. The drama is over whether the US government should pay the money it's already spent. This is a spectacle only because the Republican Party is incapable of responsible governance, especially the nihilistic saboteurs in the House.

You know we're in trouble when we've sort of low-key hoped that Senate Republicans would swoop in and save the day, but they've officially declared that their "name is Paul and this is between y'all." 

PREVIOUSLY:

 The Debt Ceiling, AGAIN? The Deuce You Say! 

 Hey, Lame-Duck Congress! How About Ending The Stupid Debt Limit While You Still Can? 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that a solution to avoiding catastrophic debt default should originate in the Republican-controlled House, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy should take the lead negotiating a deal with President Joe Biden. Look, McCarthy might do all right with petty payback and desperate groveling to fascists, but negotiating deals like a big-pants-wearing legislator is not one of his core competencies.

"I can't imagine any debt ceiling provision passed out of the Senate with 60 votes could actually pass this particular House," McConnell said, perhaps acknowledging that House Speaker Scar secured his position through a deal with some unhinged hyenas, who'll eventually turn on him. "I think the final solution to this particular episode lies between Speaker McCarthy and the president."

Please, sir, don't say "final solution" when discussing a Republican-controlled House that is currently heavy on Nazis. 

Sen. John Cornyn from Texas also agreed with McConnell's hot-potato dodging: "Ultimately, I think it's going to have to be negotiated by the House and the White House." When a reporter asked if he was "on the same page as House Republicans," Cornyn replied, "I don't know what page they're on." It's the page filled with McCarthy's love poems to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

 Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina said, "What matters is really what the House can create. They’re in a position, they have the gavels. We have to see what sort of strategy they think works to a successful outcome.”

It's like these guys are setting up House Republicans to fail big and publicly demonstrate how useless they are. Tanking the economic is a rather expensive object lesson for something we already know.

McConnell said Tuesday that it's "entirely reasonable" for the House to "put spending reductions on the table." McCarthy, the spineless weasel who walks like a man, claims he wants to establish a "responsible debt ceiling" and that the White House's refusal to negotiate is "irresponsible."

"I want to look the president in the eye and tell me there's not $1 of wasteful spending and government," McCarthy said. How is this fool gonna negotiate a debt ceiling when he mangles basic talking points? "Who believes that? The American public doesn't believe that. Our whole government is designed to have compromise."

McCarthy sold his soul and what few scruples he possesses for power and a commemorative Pez dispenser, so I guess he's an expert on "compromise." Unfortunately, his true masters want to crush the Biden White House, not "compromise" with it.

However, Democrat Joe Manchin, the Senate's own Dr. Pangloss, remains optimistic. He told reporters Monday, "I think you have to sit down and talk to everybody and find out if there's an objection and find out where it is. We all know that we're going to pass the debt ceiling, we're not going to let the country default."

Did Manchin miss that speaker election fiasco? This is not a rational Republican House majority.

Sen. Mitt Romney has co-sponsored a bill with Manchin that he says could serve as part of a broader discussion, but he also told reporters that the White House needs to "engage" with House Republican hostage takers. Manchin and Romney both insist that immediate cuts to Social Security and Medicare are "off the table." Other Republicans, including in the House, don't want to touch military spending. Maybe Biden and McCarthy can shave a few trillion from the budget by ending free pizza Fridays.

[ NPR / Talking Points Memo ]

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