Current Events > McConnell to Dems: just lift the debt limit yourselves.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/04/mcconnell-biden-connection-514901

Joe Biden and Mitch McConnells two-man emergency hotline had gone silent until now.

The Senate minority leader on Monday morning prodded the president to talk his party into raising the debt ceiling without the GOP, the first step in what may become a complicated back-and-forth. McConnell has warned for months that he won't supply the votes to raise the nation's borrowing limit even as the risk of a U.S. default spikes, and he reiterated in a new letter to Biden that he won't help Democrats out of the jam.

I respectfully submit that it is time for you to engage directly with congressional Democrats on this matter, McConnell told Biden in his letter, a copy of which POLITICO obtained. Your lieutenants in Congress must understand that you do not want your unified Democratic government to sleepwalk toward an avoidable catastrophe when they have had nearly three months notice to do their job.

The letter, delivered to the White House on Monday, also cites Bidens past opposition to debt increases while in the minority. McConnell summarized it this way: The presidents party had to take responsibility for a policy agenda which you opposed. Your view then is our view now.
The president and the Senate GOP leader jointly helped avert fiscal catastrophe several times when Biden was vice president due to their long-running relationship and mutual trust. Yet the two arent even speaking to each other as Congress approaches a calamitous fight over the debt ceiling. Monday's missive and Bidens speech about the debt ceiling later Monday amount to their first real communication on the most perilous deadline Congress will face this year.

The two leaders have bragged for years about their close working relationship. When Biden campaigned for president, he did so as a leader who could reason with an oft-obstinate McConnell. And just a few months ago, McConnell shocked all of Washington when he endorsed Bidens infrastructure deal.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, said McConnells position has to stick in the presidents craw. This is something thats been routinely done. Theres been bipartisan cooperation about working together to raise the debt ceiling, dozens and dozens of times.

The president is set to give a speech on Monday morning on the importance of raising the debt ceiling after McConnells conference blocked a proposal to do so last week. The Kentucky Republican, meanwhile, says he doesn't take it personally that he and Biden aren't in touch.
The reason we're not talking much is because of what they're trying to do. I'm not offended by that. We don't have anything to talk about right now. He's got his hands busy, with Manchin, with Sinema, McConnell said in a recent interview, referring to negotiations over Bidens partisan social spending plan. That doesn't mean we have a hostile relationship. It's just that there's no business to be doing with them right now.

As for whether Biden has picked up the phone to dial McConnell on the debt ceiling, he responded: No. And Im not ambivalent about that.

As he focuses on saving his domestic spending and tax plans, Biden has sided with Schumer, who says he simply will not raise the debt ceiling with all Democratic votes through the arcane budget reconciliation process, as McConnell has demanded. Democrats say it takes too long and that the GOP should just not filibuster.

Now, at perhaps the most critical time, the two arent even trying to negotiate. McConnell wrote to Biden that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reluctance to tackle the debt limit along party lines is not an excuse; it is just a complaint. He also said he will not provide a shortcut around procedural hurdles they can clear on their own.

But in the process, the price tag for Bidens social spending package has taken a major hit from the $3.5 trillion that Democratic leaders wanted, somewhat hampering Republicans arguments about the excess of a bill that large.

For now, its impossible to predict who will blink in the debt limit standoff. The country may run right up to the brink of catastrophe in the coming weeks as a mid-October deadline to lift the debt ceiling draws near.

I dont understand what point McConnells trying to make now, Coons added, referring to the GOP leaders disinterest in allowing a simple majority vote instead of the more complex budget reconciliation process. I dont know whether our president will be able to move him.
...
The president and the Senate minority leader worked together to avert default in 2010 and avoid the fiscal cliff of 2012, when a host of tax cuts were set to expire. But unlike those past collisions, McConnell and his Republican colleagues have no policy goals they want enacted as a condition for suspending or hiking the debt ceiling. Rather, the GOP wants Biden and Democrats to drop their push for expanding the safety net, raising taxes on the wealthy and taking action on climate.

Biden's reached out to Republicans beyond McConnell; he called Sen. Susan Collins last week to congratulate the Mainer on her successful proposal to aid victims of directed-energy attacks. But she said they didnt even discuss the debt ceiling.

Republicans would vote to suspend the debt ceiling through the end of next year if the president abandoned the plans for this $3.5 trillion [bill], Collins said in an interview.

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it bears repeating: this man is an enormous piece of shit

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How about we just take all of Kentuckys highway money for the next ten years and put it towards the debt that McConnell ran up?

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divot1338 posted...

How about we just take all of Kentuckys highway money for the next ten years and put it towards the debt that McConnell ran up?

Making people's lives worse to make an inscrutable point about the debt is Mitch McConnel's job, not yours.

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So GOP now ok risking the death of the US dollar as the reserve currency to own the libs. Yikes

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Antifar posted...

Making people's lives worse to make an inscrutable point about the debt is Mitch McConnel's job, not yours.

Im okay with it.

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Antifar posted...

Making people's lives worse to make an inscrutable point about the debt is Mitch McConnel's job, not yours.

Haha

Raise the debt limit to like 10^100 US Dollars.

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BlueTigerLion posted...

So GOP now ok risking the death of the US dollar as the reserve currency to own the libs. Yikes

They just think Democrats, faced with the choice, will choose to avert that risk rather than pass their own agenda or meaningfully alter Senate rules.

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When he dies, I want to eat so much that I can have the most satisfying BM of my life on the same day.


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Tell him no. Make him sweat.
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Biden: No, that seems stupid
https://twitter.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1445055746316582916

*shrug*

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Does anyone actually believe the "its complicated" excuse? Why not just be honest and say that you need to use the Reconciliation vote for the $3.5 trillion bill and don't want to waste it on raising the debt ceiling?

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McConnell: Ive done nothing to help at all, but your people have had months to your job.

yeah, fuck this guy hard.

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We really need to call in The Shredder at this point.

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McConnell is really a ghoul, and they keep voting him in there.

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Taharqa_ posted...

McConnell is really a ghoul, and they keep voting him in there.

That's not fair.

There's some fairly cool ghouls out there. At least until they become feral.

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So how much federal spending goes to Kentucky?

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Kavatar posted...

So how much federal spending goes to Kentucky?

If we hit the debt limit and cant pay our legally required to be paid obligations and cant make more debt, then 0

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This is all theater. They all know if the debt limit doesn't get raised, America ends.

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Doe posted...

This is all theater. They all know if the debt limit doesn't get raised, America ends.

they all know that if they start suspending services people have paid into for decades then they're going to end up with angry mobs after them...

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Kavatar posted...

So how much federal spending goes to Kentucky?

Kentucky has a pretty good democrat governor. Wouldnt really be fair to fuck over an entire state because its senator happens to suck

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Samurontai posted...

Kentucky has a pretty good democrat governor. Wouldnt really be fair to fuck over an entire state because its senator happens to suck

The electorate has continuously voted for Mitch in statewide elections

this is what they want

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Garnish 100% of all income of the republican senators to pay the debt.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Garnish 100% of all income of the republican senators to pay the debt.

That extremely would not cut it, but it would also have the benefit of making them more reliant on private sector income and wealth.

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remove the filibuster

use the removal of the filibuster to remove the debt limit permanently and require a 2/3 majority vote to reinstate it

use the removal to pass sweeping legislation for voting rights

accept that if the GOP then wins an election for both houses of congress and the presidency, they actually were chosen by the american people and deserve to be able to do whatever the hell they want

know that the disunity of their own party makes killing the filibuster not actually a significant power increase for democrats themselves

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SoggyBottomBoy posted...

When he dies, I want to eat so much that I can have the most satisfying BM of my life on the same day.

The only thing keeping me alive is the ability to shit on the graves of people that spent their lives being pos.

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