Democrats are *not* negotiating on the debt limit

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says he will not negotiate on the federal government’s obligation to pay its bills.

But Biden met this week with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and his staff met as well. So it’s clear that some kind of closed-door negotiation is taking place.

Still, a White House aide insisted Friday that Biden is negotiating only on the federal budget, apart from the much more pressing issue of raising the “debt ceiling” so the federal government can avoid default. of your debts next month.

Ultimately, it may just be a semantic difference as talk of a potential deal involving spending cuts, recovered COVID funds and energy permitting reforms rages. Also, while the government’s borrowing authority is set to expire on June 1, lawmakers must fund government agencies by September 30, meaning the White House can plausibly signal that the later deadline is the issue. of the negotiations.

The idea that Biden can negotiate federal spending but not the debt ceiling, even though the two are inextricably linked in the minds of Republicans, is an example of the rhetorical device that the debt ceiling routinely inspires.

In 2021, for example, Senate Republicans created a special exemption to the filibuster rules that allowed Democrats to raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority vote, without any spending cuts. That way, Republicans could claim they had clean hands because they only voted for the rules, not the debt limit itself.

Some close observers of the process, namely Republican members of Congress, think a broad negotiation might actually be underway.

“They are clearly negotiating now,” said Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

“As long as people are talking and as long as the parties are at the table, there is a chance that we can reach an agreement,” added Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).

In recent days, Biden has talked about the need to raise the debt ceiling while also addressing the growing budget deficit, using language that would seem to suggest an area of ​​compromise.

“We should be cutting spending and reducing the deficit without an unnecessary crisis, responsibly,” Biden said Thursday at an event in New York, citing his proposals to cut unnecessary spending on tax subsidies to the oil and gas industry.

White House officials also acknowledged that they must agree to some spending cuts or limits on future spending growth if they want to reach an agreement with the GOP-controlled House, according to Reuters.

A decision on how long to extend the government’s borrowing authority could also determine the size of spending cuts Biden would have to accept. Keeping the debt limit off the table until after the 2024 presidential election probably take the largest single debt limit hike in history.

One clear red line that Democrats are drawing is Biden’s signature climate legislation, passed last year along the party line. House Republicans passed a bill that destroyed the program and raised the debt ceiling, which Democrats consider impossible.

“Look, we recognize that Republicans have objections to certain policies, certain spending, certain investments. We disagree with them, but these discussions are a normal part of the budget process that both sides have engaged in for a long time,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said in a statement. press conference Thursday, urging Republicans to take the threat of default off the table ahead of budget negotiations.

White House staff and McCarthy’s office met Thursday and Friday, and Biden and McCarthy plan to meet again next week. Still, it appears McCarthy isn’t getting the deal he wanted at the moment.

“In any conversation we have, you can tell at that point that he doesn’t want a deal. He wants a default,” McCarthy insisted to reporters on Thursday.

There are also big questions about McCarthy’s ability to deliver the votes to pass a budget deal, should it materialize in the coming weeks. Several hardliners in her caucus have vowed not to support any legislation that includes smaller spending cuts than her proposal.

Meanwhile, grassroots Democrats are backing Biden’s negotiating strategy. While no one uses the word “cave,” Democrats appear wary of possible spending cuts, including federal safety net programs, as part of parallel negotiations on the debt ceiling and the federal budget.

In a Thursday night letter to the White House, a group of Democrats led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) praised Biden for his aggressive budget stance that rejects Republican proposals for “work requirements” for federal food and health care programs, and urged it to stick to its guns.

“We support negotiations for Congress to pass a clean debt ceiling and reach a separate budget agreement that does not undermine the social safety net programs our communities need,” Lee wrote in the letter, which was co-signed by the Presidents of the House of Congress. US Asian-Pacific Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“The president’s position is that we have to raise the debt ceiling,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told HuffPost. “If you want to discuss separately, the conversation about what the budget looks like… go ahead, but the two things can’t be put together.”

Democrats have not always liked Biden’s dealings with Republicans, despite his successful record as president. For example, during the debt limit negotiations in 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden helped broker a deal with Mitch McConnell that made most of George W. Bush’s tax cuts permanent.
“The deal you discussed with Mitch McConnell was a complete victory for the Tea Party,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Co.) said in a 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate after Biden touted his bargaining skills with Republicans. “That was a great deal for Mitch McConnell. It was a terrible deal for the American people.”