The government is funded as of last Thursday despite ridiculous Republican tricks, leaving Congress to get on with the next bunch of ridiculous antics, like raising or suspending the debt limit in the next eight days. The Treasury Department says the have until Dec. 15 to get it done, or risk sending the nation into default for the first time ever. That’s the most looming crisis for Congress, but passing the defense authorization bill is a close second, followed by President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) bill in the Senate, which passed the House last month.
Last week, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio made passing the National Defense Authorization Act in the Senate impossible after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had agreed upon the amendments that would be offered. Rubio’s amendment isn’t among them because it created a procedural problem that would have forced the House to redo the bill (it passed it already, back in September), so Rubio blew up the deal, refusing to allow the Senate to move forward on it. Because it’s the Senate and one minority member can do that.
The result of this is that the House has work on the bill again, but while they’re doing that, they are figuring out if they can take care of the debt ceiling simultaneously. The defense bill is now off the Senate floor officially, along with the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate defense committees. House Chair Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington State, is aiming to have the bill negotiated and ready to print by the end of the day Monday so that it can be done in both chambers before the end of this week.
But that will depending in part on whether they can get an agreement on the debt ceiling and potentially another looming crisis that they created for themselves a decade ago in the 2011 Budget Control Act: Automatic cuts in Medicare reimbursements will kick in on Jan. 1 if they haven’t passed something to avoid them. “Leadership’s trying to figure out how to get all stuff done,” Smith told Politico. “And what I told the speaker was if something comes up on that, let me know, but my job right now is to get you a product by Dec. 6.”
But if bipartisan leadership “decide that they want to try to use this for something else, then we’ll have that discussion when we get there. But as I kept pointing out to a number of folks … you can’t kill the host.” There are problems beyond Rubio trying to get this all done in the defense bill—numbers on both sides of the aisle.
A couple dozen House Democrats voted against the defense bill because it is massively bloated. Hardcore Republicans insist that they won’t help Democrats raise the budget ceiling. So while this is the big must-pass bill opportunity leadership would love to use to get other business done, it might just not be possible. Both House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy don’t think it will work. “We’ve told the Senate that. That’s the reality. Those are the numbers,” Hoyer said. “We don’t think it’s the best option because we’re not sure we can do it. And we have to pass the debt limit.”
The only thing that makes this round of debt ceiling brinksmanship slightly less terrifying than the fights over it in September and October is that McConnell and Schumer have actually been talking about it for several weeks and there should be a way out in the Senate, and potentially McConnell convincing McCarthy to allow the not-nihilists in his caucus to make up enough House votes. Since McCarthy is scared shitless of his nihilists, though, that’s an iffy proposition.
It might just be platinum coin time for President Biden. Yeah, it’s kind of “ridiculous” as Dean Baker says in arguing for it, but it’s a lot less ridiculous than throwing the global economy into chaos. Biden has a few other options in the event Congress can’t get its shit together this week: invoking the 14th Amendment, which does pretty much say that having a debt limit at all is unconstitutional, but would nonetheless kick off a legal battle from the Republicans who pick and choose when they want to be originalists; unilaterally issuing more debt by essentially ignoring the debt ceiling; or creating a new kind of bond to fund government expenditures.
Another option available to Democrats—provided they can get all 50 of them in the Senate on board—is to deal with it in another budget reconciliation bill. The problem with that besides getting all 50 on board is that it takes a lot of floor time. They should have done this back in September and used the option always available to them to end the debate entirely. It’s a matter of deeming the debt ceiling always equal to the debt owed and you’re done. (At least for the duration of this administration.)
Or they could finally decide that the minority in the Senate, which represents a minority of the population, can’t keep taking everybody and everything hostage and that the filibuster has to end. Even if just for the debt ceiling. And voting rights. And abortion rights. And saving the climate from global warming.
Last week, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio made passing the National Defense Authorization Act in the Senate impossible after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had agreed upon the amendments that would be offered. Rubio’s amendment isn’t among them because it created a procedural problem that would have forced the House to redo the bill (it passed it already, back in September), so Rubio blew up the deal, refusing to allow the Senate to move forward on it. Because it’s the Senate and one minority member can do that.
The result of this is that the House has work on the bill again, but while they’re doing that, they are figuring out if they can take care of the debt ceiling simultaneously. The defense bill is now off the Senate floor officially, along with the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate defense committees. House Chair Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington State, is aiming to have the bill negotiated and ready to print by the end of the day Monday so that it can be done in both chambers before the end of this week.
But that will depending in part on whether they can get an agreement on the debt ceiling and potentially another looming crisis that they created for themselves a decade ago in the 2011 Budget Control Act: Automatic cuts in Medicare reimbursements will kick in on Jan. 1 if they haven’t passed something to avoid them. “Leadership’s trying to figure out how to get all stuff done,” Smith told Politico. “And what I told the speaker was if something comes up on that, let me know, but my job right now is to get you a product by Dec. 6.”
But if bipartisan leadership “decide
A couple dozen House Democrats voted against the defense bill because it is massively bloated. Hardcore Republicans insist that they won’t help Democrats raise the budget ceiling. So while this is the big must-pass bill opportunity leadership would love to use to get other business done, it might just not be possible. Both House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy don’t think it will work. “We’ve told the Senate that. That’s the reality. Those are the numbers,” Hoyer said. “We don’t think it’s the best option because we’re not sure we can do it. And we have to pass the debt limit.”
The only thing that makes this round of debt ceiling brinksmanship slightly less terrifying than the fights over it in September and October is that McConnell and Schumer have actually been talking about it for several weeks and there should be a way out in the Senate, and potentially McConnell convincing McCarthy to allow the not-nihilists in his caucus to make up enough House votes. Since McCarthy is scared shitless of his nihilists, though, that’s an iffy proposition.
It might just be platinum coin time for President Biden. Yeah, it’s kind of “ridiculous” as Dean Baker says in arguing for it, but it’s a lot less ridiculous than throwing the global economy into chaos. Biden has a few other options in the event Congress can’t get its shit together this week: invoking the 14th Amendment, which does pretty much say that having a debt limit at all is unconstitutional, but would nonetheless kick off a legal battle from the Republicans who pick and choose when they want to be originalists; unilaterally issuing more debt by essentially ignoring the debt ceiling; or creating a new kind of bond to fund government expenditures.
Another option available to Democrats—provided they can get all 50 of them in the Senate on board—is to deal with it in another budget reconciliation bill. The problem with that besides getting all 50 on board is that it takes a lot of floor time. They should have done this back in September and used the option always available to them to end the debate entirely. It’s a matter of deeming the debt ceiling always equal to the debt owed and you’re done. (At least for the duration of this administration.)
Or they could finally decide that the minority in the Senate, which represents a minority of the population, can’t keep taking everybody and everything hostage and that the filibuster has to end. Even if just for the debt ceiling. And voting rights. And abortion rights. And saving the climate from global warming.