Debt Ceiling

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Just in case: Anxious retirees, social service groups among those making default contingency plans

WASHINGTON (AP) — Phoenix retiree Saundra Cole has been watching the news about the debt limit negotiations in Washington with dismay — and limiting her air conditioning use to save money just in case her monthly Social Security check is delayed due to a default.

https://apnews.com/article/default-yellen-biden-debt-ceiling-republicans-416a2fad74db0cb4535655ef26c9f845?

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GOP and White House talks continue as debt ceiling deadline approaches

Progress appeared to stall yesterday after the White House indicated a "speed bump" had been hit.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/live-blog/debt-ceiling-live-updates-gop-negotiators-visit-white-house-rcna86021#rcrd13340?

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Debt ceiling talks teeter on the brink, as lawmakers leave town for weekend without a deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans pushed debt ceiling talks to the brink Thursday, displaying risky political bravado in leaving town for the holiday weekend just days before the U.S. could face an unprecedented default hurling the global economy into chaos.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-biden-mccarthy-default-7df95c593c8f4c94662361a93831a42c?

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Biden says debt default deal “very close’ while deadline now set at June 5

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time running short, the government announced a new June 5 default deadline late Friday, threatening to send the White House and Republicans toward more cliff-edge negotiations over cutting spending and raising the nation’s legal debt limit

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-congress-mccarthy-biden-budget-230fed0485cdee771b67a6331f172845?

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Threat of US credit downgrade looms over debt ceiling talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — With one of three major rating agencies warning that America’s AAA credit is at risk, the stakes are growing in the standoff in Washington over raising the nation’s debt limit.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-credit-rating-downgrade-warning-default-b906c014ed2b8124917f4a107a543964?

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After years of bipartisan spending boosts, U.S. House GOP won’t lift debt ceiling without cuts

WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats in Congress together brokered dozens of debt limit agreements, including several during the past decade, marked by a desire in both political parties to increase federal spending.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/05/25/after-years-of-bipartisan-spending-boosts-u-s-house-gop-wont-lift-debt-ceiling-without-cuts/?

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Dark Money’s Behind The Debt Ceiling Plan To Punish The Poor

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy borrowed his punishing work requirement proposal from the conservative think tank pushing to loosen child labor laws.

https://www.levernews.com/dark-moneys-behind-the-debt-ceiling-plan-to-punish-the-poor/

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White House and GOP reach tentative debt ceiling deal

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have reached a tentative deal to raise the debt ceiling to 2025, Axios has learned from sources in both parties.

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/28/debt-ceiling-deal-republicans-white-house?

Here’s what’s in the debt ceiling deal

(CNN) — After several weeks of tense negotiations, President Joe Biden and House Republicans have reached an agreement in principle to raise the debt ceiling and cap spending.

https://krdo.com/news/2023/05/28/heres-whats-in-the-debt-ceiling-deal-2/?

Debt ceiling agreement gets thumbs up from biz groups, jeers from some on political right

WASHINGTON (AP) — The reviews are starting to come in as details emerge about the debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-ceiling-deal-biden-mccarthy-default-1187360a5aabdc4a58fd13be260540dc

Biden and GOP rush to finalize debt ceiling deal, shore up support to prevent default

WASHINGTON (AP) — With days to spare before a potential first-ever government default, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday were finalizing a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling while trying to ensure enough Republican and Democratic votes to pass the measure in the coming week.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-deal-biden-mccarthy-default-01657c829be119850cd65ab9ffb0626a

What’s next on the debt ceiling: Selling the plan and making a deal into a law

After weeks of negotiations, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have announced an “ agreement in principle ” to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and avoid a potentially catastrophic default.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-whats-next-mccarthy-biden-default-c9e5f6dbd2054bba01318ce6b6b629bd

Debt ceiling tests Speaker McCarthy as he rides breezily through high-wire act of his career

WASHINGTON (AP) — One morning amid the debt ceiling crisis, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy climbed onto his mountain bike and took a ride along the National Mall, marveling at the monuments.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-speaker-mccarthy-biden-51c358b700d9588ea5122ea402b819dd

Debt ceiling deal: What’s in, what’s out of the agreement to avert US default

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement in principle on legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid a federal default.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-ceiling-deal-food-aid-student-loans-3c284b01d95f8e193bca8d873386400e

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Party leaders sell divergent realities on debt ceiling deal

The White House and House GOP are each performing careful balancing acts as they race to sell their debt ceiling deal to lawmakers as a decisive victory — without alienating the other side.

Why it matters: The bill will almost certainly require substantial support from members in both parties to pass and avert a potentially catastrophic default on U.S. debt by June 5.

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/28/debt-ceiling-deal-mccarthy-democrats-spin?

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Facing backlash, McCarthy hunts for GOP votes for debt limit deal in time to prevent US default

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fire from conservatives, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked furiously Tuesday to sell fellow Republicans on the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden and win approval in time to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-biden-mccarthy-house-votes-c8484d7fcd1e38fa593e5dc79c910747?

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Debt limit deal heads to vote in full House while McCarthy scrambles for GOP approval

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fire from conservatives, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked furiously Tuesday to sell fellow Republicans on the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden and win approval in time to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-biden-mccarthy-house-votes-c8484d7fcd1e38fa593e5dc79c910747?

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McCarthy rallies support for debt deal amid hints of mutiny

Speaker Kevin McCarthy hunkered down in a mostly desolate Capitol building on Monday to build support for his debt limit compromise, dogged by claims of promises he made to become speaker.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/29/mccarthy-debt-deal-biden-00099175?

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McCarthy overcomes Rules rebellion over debt deal

Once conservative Rep. Thomas Massie announced that he would vote in favor of the rule, the conservative effort to tank the measure in committee lost steam.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/30/debt-ceiling-deal-house-rules-committee-republicans-00099245?

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Dems Try Not to Rub Debt Deal in GOP Colleagues’ Faces—Yet

Democrats are trying to restrain themselves from gloating about the debt limit deal. At least until the bill passes.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dems-try-not-to-rub-debt-deal-in-gop-colleagues-facesyet?

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Debt limit deal hits turbulence in Congress as leaders prep for vote

WASHINGTON — Congress began moving the bipartisan debt limit package forward Tuesday, though frustrations with provisions in the bill could make for narrow passage in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/05/30/debt-limit-deal-hits-turbulence-in-congress-as-leaders-prep-for-vote/?

New work requirements for some SNAP recipients included in debt limit deal

WASHINGTON — The holiday weekend debt ceiling deal struck by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy preserves in part new work requirements for some food stamp recipients but now with exceptions for certain populations, including veterans.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/05/30/new-work-requirements-for-some-snap-recipients-included-in-debt-limit-deal/?

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House OKs debt ceiling bill to avoid default, sends Biden-McCarthy deal to Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veering away from a default crisis, the House approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package late Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans against fierce conservative blowback and progressive dissent.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-biden-mccarthy-house-votes-9375cce9b7526b2d0a5728f8d4a18a0a?

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The good, the bad, and the ugly of the debt ceiling deal

The deal hammered out between Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy isn't perfect. It could have been much worse.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/debt-ceiling-deal-passed-inside-biden-mccarthy-plan-rcna86862?

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Senate defense hawks revolt

Senators outraged by the level of defense spending passed in the House's bipartisan debt ceiling bill pressured Senate leaders today to agree to put a supplemental military funding package on the floor later this year.

Why it matters: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced minutes ago that a deal had been reached with the holdouts, clearing the way for a final vote on the debt ceiling bill later tonight.

Between the lines: The disconnect between Republicans in the House and Senate — a stronghold for the GOP establishment — is perhaps no more obvious than on issues of defense spending and support for Ukraine.

• "To my House colleagues, I can't believe you did this," a furious Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on the Senate floor. "To the Speaker, I know you got a tough job. I like you, but the party of Ronald Reagan is dying."
• "This bill poses a mortal risk to our national security by cutting our defense budget, which I cannot support as grave dangers gather on the horizon," said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

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Just days to spare, Senate gives final approval to debt ceiling deal, sending it to Biden

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.

https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-biden-mccarthy-senate-house-default-b8c3566b0c9cb168d9706aa256e327f7?

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Senate sends debt deal to Biden's desk

Just before 11 p.m., the Senate passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling into 2025 and cut the deficit, sending the bill to President Biden's desk, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

• Why it matters: The U.S. averted a potentially catastrophic default on its debt obligations after Congress punted the issue past the 2024 election.

🧮 By the numbers: Senators passed the bill 63-36, with 46 Democrats and 17 Republicans in favor.

• 31 Republicans, mostly conservatives, voted against the bill, including Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
• Five progressives also voted against it: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who was attending his son's graduation, was the lone senator who did not vote.

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Above: Tally sheets are seen in the Senate press gallery after a hectic series of amendment votes and final passage of the debt-ceiling package.

• Go deeper: What's in the deal.

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How Biden and McCarthy struck a debt limit deal and staved off a catastrophe

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was advice that Mitch McConnell had offered to Joe Biden once already: To resolve the debt limit standoff, he needed to strike a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — and McCarthy alone. But after the first meeting of the top four congressional leaders with the president in early May, the Senate minority leader felt the need to reemphasize his counsel.

https://apnews.com/article/president-joe-biden-kevin-mccarthy-debt-limit-aee6d1dd48f53bedadfe1212e231f48f?

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Lauren Boebert missed voting against the debt ceiling bill she hated and can't explain why

Despite vocally opposing the deal for weeks, Rep. Lauren Boebert is unable to explain why she missed Wednesday's pivotal vote to raise the federal debt ceiling.

https://www.businessinsider.com/lauren-boebert-missed-debt-ceiling-vote-explanation-2023-6?

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Making political lemonade out of lemons

With the debt ceiling debate behind them for another two years, vulnerable lawmakers in swing districts — from both parties — are breathing a sigh of relief, Andrew Solender and I report.

Why it matters: Both sides risked potential backlash from their respective ideological flanks, but many feel they came out with a compromise that projects serious governance and puts them on a stronger political footing.

• The fact that two-thirds of the House GOP — and even eight hard-right Freedom Caucus members — backed the deal will make it harder to target the moderate Republicans in primaries over this issue.
• Democrats in tough districts also can tout their support for spending discipline to burnish a moderate image.

Go deeper: Debt ceiling votes carry monumental political and financial peril, something many lawmakers fear would be heightened in the heat of an election year.

• But lawmakers and strategists from both parties are confident the issue has been defused.
• For Republicans, party officials are relieved the episode empowered House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) against the often self-defeating instincts of his caucus' right flank.

Details: The bill House Republicans passed in April — the Limit, Save, Grow Act — would have lifted the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or until March 2024, dropping the issue into the heart of the 2024 primary calendar.

• But McCarthy and President Biden agreed to a bill suspending the debt ceiling until January 2025, meaning it likely will be tackled in the lame duck session after the 2024 general election.

What they're saying: Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told Axios it would have been "catastrophic for the American people" to have a debt ceiling fight "in the middle of a partisan presidential election," calling the 2025 date "not just a win for Joe Biden, but a win for the country."

• Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) cast this year's debt ceiling talks as "grownups at the table, meeting in the middle," and said that "if you're closer to the election, there may be less willingness to compromise."
• " fear that this [House Republican] majority would, again, use this threat as a political tool to try to embarrass the president," said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.).

By the numbers: Congress hasn't taken a vote to raise or suspend the debt ceiling in an election year since 2014. The last time it took one in a presidential election year was 2012.

The bottom line: Historically, big compromises between a Democratic president and conservative Congress benefit the incumbents.

• Both President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress won re-election in 1996 after heated fights over spending and entitlements that led to a government shutdown — and later, a major legislative compromise over welfare reform.
• President Obama's high-stakes fiscal fights with the Tea Party-fueled Republican House in the 2010s also led to Obama winning a second term — and Republicans comfortably retaining their House majority.
• Voters like divided government, which would bode well for both Biden and the House GOP's political prospects in 2024.

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Vote of the week: Compromise is a political winner

The bipartisan House vote raising the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts is a sign that despite all the noise from the ideologues, deal-making is popular with most voters.

Why it matters: Very few of the opponents of the compromise hail from swing districts.

• Of the 118 House Republicans and Democrats who voted against the deal, only eight are from potentially competitive districts, according to Cook Political Report ratings — and one of them is scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.).
• The list of those who opposed the Biden-McCarthy compromise is largely a who's-who of left-wing "Squad" lawmakers and right-wing Freedom Caucus members.

Zoom in: The only two House Democrats running for re-election in a competitive district to oppose the deal were Reps. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) and Val Hoyle (D-Ore.).

• Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) , who represents a swing district, also voted no, but she's running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
• The swing-district Republicans who voted no still represent Trump-friendly seats. The dissenters were a mix of a moderate maverick (Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina), conservative ideologues (Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida) and the scandal-plagued (Santos).

Between the lines: Lawmakers in both parties looking for a Senate promotion mostly voted against the compromise. These candidates are facing contested primaries, where the energy is on the extremes.

• In the California Senate primary, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined with the moderate majority to support the deal. But Porter and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) joined the progressives in voting no.
• Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), running against Gov. Jim Justice in West Virginia's GOP Senate primary, voted no. Justice released a lengthy statement in which he didn't take a position on the deal itself.
• Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), a potential Montana Senate candidate, voted against the deal. He's viewed critically by many GOP leaders, who prefer military veteran and businessman Tim Sheehy to run against Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)

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The Debt Limit Bill: Yet Another Triumph for Bipartisanship

Democrats and Republicans have previously joined hands to support the invasion of Iraq, huge corporate tax cuts, and more.

https://theintercept.com/2023/06/03/debt-limit-bill-bipartisanship/?