The media is already running this story like you should be worried…
Like most media narratives…
You shouldn’t be….
In the end?
The debt limit WILL be raised…
The lawmakers may dance a political dance….
But in the end?
The United States Government WILL pay every bill it has to….
Just like it does EVERYTIME this opera occurs ….
That was January 2020, and the context focused on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to hold articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his actions toward Ukraine to try to pressure McConnell into agreeing to hold an expansive Senate trial that would include witnesses.
Now, almost two years later, Democrats have set up a similar type of strategy that, if successful, will force Republicans to accept their fair share of the national debt that now tops $28 trillion. If this strategy fails, the federal government could run out of funding authority and enter another congressionally forced shutdown — the fourth in less than a decade — and create a debt crisis that could rattle global financial markets…
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McConnell has declared that Senate Republicans will not vote to increase the Treasury’s authority to continue borrowing, which is the same as voting to allow a default. As he has done before, McConnell has essentially created a new rule out of whole cloth to justify his actions…
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In fact, almost every time the debt ceiling has been lifted, it has been done in bipartisan fashion under the regular Senate order that requires at least 60 votes to end debate on the legislation.
In today’s 50-50 Senate, that means at least 10 Republicans have to join Democrats to approve a new debt limit or, as has been done in recent years, suspend that law for a few years….
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The goal is purely political.
McConnell says he doesn’t want to breach the debt limit. He just wants to keep GOP hands clean of all this new spending in advance of the 2022 midterm elections….
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The debt limit only applies to paying for the expenses of policies already enacted, not to legislative proposals that have not been signed into law.
The last time the debt crisis hit such an impasse, in late July 2011, the financial markets went into a tailspin until a pair of seasoned Washington hands stepped in and negotiated a settlement: McConnell and then-Vice President Biden….
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“We will pass a debt limit [increase]. We don’t know when,” Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) told reporters. “We don’t think that the Treasury is up against a wall yet.”
image….Slate.Com
Debt Ceiling Update….
Shutdown Plan B
“The Senate will hold a futile vote Monday night — just 72 hours before a potential shutdown — on a House-passed bill to fund the government through Dec. 3 and raise the debt limit,” Axios reports.
“The bill is going to fail. Period. But then comes Plan B: A ‘clean’ continuing resolution — stripped of language about raising the debt limit — that Democrats spent the past week preparing.”
And a reminder: This is not normal.
(Remember Trump stretched this out for 35 or so days and Republicans lost points on THAT)
Pretty much as expected….
Democrats and Republicans look like they ARE NOT gonna do a ‘Trump’ and let the Government spending thing stop for any long period of time…
…The decision by Democratic leaders to schedule a separate vote to raise the borrowing limit came after Senate Republicans balked at doing so as part of the stopgap spending bill, effectively stopping both measures in their tracks. It angered some moderate and conservative lawmakers in their ranks who are cold to the idea of taking a politically difficult vote to endorse more federal debt on a bill that is all but certain to stall in the Senate amid Republican opposition….
More…
House approves suspension of US Debt ceiling limit until Dec. 16, 2021….
Senate must approve same…..
It appears one GOP House member may have broke ranks and supported the Democratic action….
No debt ceiling shutdown as President Biden signs off the push back till December 3rd…
Is it both the debt ceiling and the Continuing Resolution (keeping Uncle Sam running) ?
DSD….
I believe the vote on the debt ceiling JUST essentially stops the clock on the deadline….
Nothing more….
Link…
No, now the smoke has cleared, it appears that while the government can operate at least until December 3rd, the GOP wouldn’t allow the debt ceiling rise to be attached to the same bill.
So without some prompt action, the national debt will exceed its legal limit on Monday, October 18th (two weeks from next Monday the 4th), with all kinds of horrendous consequences.
It’s hard to imagine a Republican Senator returning to explain to his or her constituents why Social Security and Veterans’ Administration payments, or military paychecks, were stopped or interrupted.
I actually think things will be fine on the debt ceiling
As in the past…..
The govt will make all sorts of tricks to keep things going….
As they have often in the past against ‘hair on fire’ media stories…
I stand corrected on this…
While ‘on the whole’ there is no real change in things with the debt manuevering?
There ARE some results that ARE significant for those involved….
The Department of Transportation furloughed 3,700 employees and halted some grant programs Friday, after Congress failed to extend spending from the highway trust fund amid an ongoing dispute about infrastructure and social spending….
More…
Help for those DOT employee’s is on the way…..
So my original view is back in tact….
The House voted late Friday to extend transportation funding programs for a month, a step that would grant a reprieve to 3,700 Department of Transportation employees who were furloughed when the money expired a day earlier.
The fund, designed to provide long-term stability for road and transit projects, expired Thursday night as Democrats clashed over whether to advance a $1 trillion infrastructure bill amid debate that included the future of trillions more in social spending.
The House voted 365-51 to approve the extension. The Senate didn’t take the bill up Friday evening, but was expected to pass it Saturday, a move that would end the furloughs and ensure money keeps flowing. It would give lawmakers time to continue seeking a resolution to the impasse over the spending packages….
More…
Rating Agency Says U.S. Will Avoid Default
“Moody’s Investors Service said on Tuesday the stable outlook on the United States’ Aaa rating reflects its view that the country would raise its debt limit and continue to meet its debt service obligations in full and on time,” Reuters reports.
Punchbowl News: “There seems to be some theory floating around the Capitol that tomorrow’s procedural vote will help clarify this process, a bit. The cloture vote will fail — no surprises here. But Republicans seem convinced that it will help Schumer and the Democratic leadership push their rank-and-file senators toward reconciliation afterward. We will see in the coming days whether that’s the case.”
Bloomberg
@business
The House approved a short-term increase in the government’s debt limit, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden just days before the U.S. Treasury was at risk of running out of borrowing authority…
More…
219 Yea (all D)
206 Nay (all R)
7 Not Voting (6 R, 1 D)
Higgins (LA) Republican Louisiana
Kelly (IL) Democratic Illinois
Lesko Republican Arizona
McClintock Republican California
Murphy (NC) Republican North Carolina
Rouzer Republican North Carolina
Tiffany Republican Wisconsin
Tonight’s 50-43 Senate vote (at 8:19 p.m.) was incompletely party-line with all 50 Democrats voting Aye, but 7 Republicans ultimately not voting (although a couple of the non-voters, such as Cornyn, Blackburn & Tuberville, had originally voted No).
Not Voting – 7
Blackburn (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Rubio (R-FL)
Tuberville (R-AL)
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=117&session=1&vote=00402
I soon expect the full Floridian fury of a former First Citizen— who only counts victories and defeats rather than the general welfare — to be unleashed upon those 7 Senators.