He has little choice, however, since Republicans control the House and make up almost half of the Senate. Last month, House Republicans agreed on an opening bid: They offered to lift the debt ceiling for one year if Democrats agree to cut nondefense spending (except Social Security and Medicare) by an estimated 22%, an extraordinarily deep reduction.īiden has offered to negotiate over spending cuts, but says he won’t bargain as long as the GOP holds the debt ceiling hostage. You’re going to pass it it’s just a question of how painful it’s going to be,” said Amy Walter, editor of the Cook Political Report, quoting a veteran lobbyist. “The debt ceiling fight is like a kidney stone. In theory, there are plenty of ways to solve this problem - the debt ceiling has been raised seven times in the last decade - but most would require both sides to make painful concessions. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) has his job thanks to the hard-line Freedom Caucus, which has long opposed raising the debt ceiling under any circumstance. Political polarization has made the problem harder to solve.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |