Tentative Deal Reached To Raise The Federal Debt Ceiling; Sedition Caucus Could Still Filibuster It

The House late Tuesday passed legislation that paves the way for Congress to raise the debt limit in the coming days — and prevent an unprecedented federal default — by allowing Democrats to circumvent a GOP filibuster in the Senate. House approves bill to ease passage of debt limit hike:

Lawmakers adopted the measure along party lines, 222-212, with one Republican (retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)) joining all Democrats in support, as part of a deal struck earlier in the day by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Note: The federal debt ceiling language was added to the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act. The bill would also delay scheduled cuts in Medicare and other programs. The legislative vehicle for the debt ceiling increase is an unrelated bill that previously passed both chambers with amendments, allowing Senate leaders to avoid a time-consuming motion to proceed in that chamber. Instead, only one cloture vote would be needed. The special procedure would be available for one time only, wouldn’t be applicable to any other piece of legislation and would expire on Jan. 16.

The highly contortionist procedural strategy will empower Senate Democrats to raise the debt ceiling in a subsequent bill without a single Republican vote while liberating GOP senators to oppose that increase in the Treasury’s borrowing authority — a toxic idea in some conservative circles, particularly under a Democratic president — without contributing to an economy-crushing government default.

Note: Republicans are violating their oath of office and constitutionally prescribed duty to honor the full faith and credit of debts incurred by the United States. Fourteenth Amendment, Section Four states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.”  In this case, debts largely incurred under the Trump administration and Republican control of the Senate. Republicans ran up the debt, and now these deadbeats want to skip out on the bill, because a Democrat is now in the White House. Default on the debt would have catastrophic economic consequences not just for the United States, but for the world. This makes these deadbeat Republicans trying to cause economic harm to the U.S. economy domestic terrorists as well.

Tuesday’s vote came just more than a week before a Dec. 15 deadline, when the Treasury Department has warned Congress it will exhaust its borrowing powers and be forced to skip some of its financial obligations. The procedural language allowing Democrats to raise the debt limit by a simple majority is part of a bill that also averts automatic cuts faced by physicians and other medical providers under Medicare. [A penalty for using the budget reconciliation process. Congress always exempts these cuts, rendering this a useless law.]

It’s not quite a done deal yet, however, as the bill will still be subject to a Senate filibuster, requiring 60 votes to proceed.

McConnell expressed confidence on Tuesday that his party will deliver at least 10 votes when the bill comes to the Senate floor later this week. But it’s not yet clear how many GOP senators will agree to back the compromise negotiated by McConnell.

Some of McConnell’s closest GOP allies signaled they would back it, including the second-ranking Senate Republican, John Thune (S.D.), as well as Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Roy Blunt (Mo.). Yet at least two of the 11 GOP senators who helped advance the last debt ceiling agreement in October, Sens. Richard Shelby (Ala.) and Mike Rounds (S.D.), indicated on Tuesday that they would likely vote against the deal this week.

Still, Democratic leaders were confident that, with McConnell’s backing, the measure will easily clear the upper chamber.

“If Mitch and Cornyn and Blunt are on board, they’ll get seven more,” predicted Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee.

For McConnell, the support marks the second time in recent months that he’s helped Democrats raise the debt ceiling, after vowing in no uncertain terms to refuse to do so.

Yarmuth, who’s known the Senate GOP leader for decades, said the reason was simple.

“He was in a box,” Yarmuth said.

“The fact that he essentially agreed to do a carve-out of the filibuster and then said he’d vote for it is a pretty big concession,” he added.

Assuming the bill creating the special process does win enough GOP support to advance in the Senate, Democrats would then pass a separate measure on their own that would actually raise the debt limit by a specific number. It’s expected that Democrats would enact a debt limit hike high enough to cover federal spending obligations until after the 2022 midterm elections.

The legislation establishing a new debt limit would then go to the House for approval.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday night teed up a key vote on a deal struck with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to raise the debt ceiling with only Democratic votes. Schumer tees up key Thursday vote on debt deal:

Schumer, before wrapping up the Senate for the night, moved to tee up a vote expected on Thursday, absent a deal to speed things up, on the bill that would prevent cuts to Medicare and green lights the Senate bypassing the legislative filibuster on a subsequent debt ceiling bill.

[To] get the bill, which lays out the instructions for how separate debt ceiling legislation will be considered, through the Senate, Schumer will need the support of at least 10 GOP senators. After that bill passes, Democrats will then be able to pass a stand-alone bill on raising the debt ceiling with a simple majority, meaning they won’t need any GOP support.

McConnell, during a press conference with reporters, said that he was “confident” enough GOP senators would help advance the bill that sets up a one-time exemption for the filibuster on debt ceiling legislation.

“There are always differences of opinion among Republicans about how to handle a delicate issue like the debt ceiling. We’ll be voting on it Thursday and I’m confident that this particular procedure coupled with the avoidance of Medicare cuts will achieve enough Republican support to clear the 60 vote threshold,” he said.

“And then later, when the majority leader decides to have the procedure, it can all occur in one day and the actual debt ceiling vote will be done at a 51 vote threshold,” he added.

GOP leaders view the deal as a win because it creates a fast-track process that forces Democrats to raise the debt ceiling to a specific number, similar to the budget reconciliation process that Republicans long pressured Democrats to use to raise the debt ceiling.

Even as members of GOP leadership voiced confidence the bill that eases the way to a simple majority debt ceiling vote would be able to pass the Senate, conservatives pushed back during a closed-door lunch.

Some of the 11 GOP senators who previously helped advance a debt ceiling deal in early October have also said they won’t support the current deal.

The domestic terrorists in the GQP Sedition Caucus still insist they want to burn it all down. McConnell faces GOP pushback on debt deal:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is facing pushback over a deal announced Tuesday by congressional leaders that paves the way for Democrats to sidestep a filibuster and raise the debt ceiling.

McConnell is sparking resistance within his own caucus both from conservatives, who raised concerns during a closed-door lunch, and GOP senators who previously helped advance a debt ceiling deal in October.

[R]epublicans were describing the measure Tuesday as setting up a one-time exception to the filibuster. Though a GOP aide noted that the Senate routinely has a fast-track process for other issues like arms sales and trade deals, the debt agreement was drawing criticism from conservatives who don’t want to lift a finger to help Democrats extend the nation’s borrowing limit.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), in a tweet, called it a “Frankenstein bill” that would “neuter the Senate.” While [insurrection leader] Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned that Republicans should do nothing that helps Democrats raise the debt ceiling.

“[Democrats] should at least own the responsibility for crushing debt they are necessitating. Republicans should not participate in racking up that debt, which is harming people across the country,” Cruz said.

Once again, in this case, the debts were largely incurred under the Trump administration and Republican control of the Senate. Republicans ran up the debt, and now these deadbeats want to skip out on the bill, because a Democrat is now in the White House. Default on the debt would have catastrophic economic consequences not just for the United States, but for the world. This makes these deadbeat Republicans trying to cause economic harm to the U.S. economy domestic terrorists as well.

These Tea Party Terrorists have been in Washington far too long. They need to go.

Democrats have pointed out that the debt ceiling needs to be lifted to cover bills signed by both President Biden and former President Trump, and that Democrats provided votes to suspend the borrowing limit during the Trump years.

Yeah, Teddy Terrorist, what about that?

McConnell, during a closed-door caucus lunch, walked his caucus through the debt ceiling agreement, pitching it as a win for the party. He touted it as allowing the GOP to put the focus on Biden-era spending, which McConnell sees as a more potent line of attack heading into 2022, as well a victory for Republicans because Democrats will have to raise the debt ceiling to a specific number.

The only thing this partisan hack cares about, and I mean the only thing, is attack ad messaging using lies and distortions to mislead the American people, to put his sorry ass back in power so he can finish his project of destroying American democracy. Never forget that McConnell is the “Grim Reaper of Democracy.” He is playing the long game. But McConnell will be 80 years old next year. Time is running out on his evil plot. The real Grim Reaper will be coming for him soon enough.

It’s not entirely clear, however, how many Senate Republicans agree with McConnell, who voiced confidence his party will have the 10 votes on Thursday. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, acknowledged that preventing Medicare cuts is how the deal is being sold to Republicans but, “we’ll have to see how many people bought it.”

At least two GOP senators who helped advance the debt ceiling agreement in October said they were either opposed or likely to be “no” votes.

“I wouldn’t vote for it,” said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who helped advance a short-term debt hike earlier this year. “I just think we ought to keep our word with the base.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), another one of the 11 GOP senators, said that he was “leaning” toward opposing the deal.

[T]he deal is a sharp U-turn from October, when the debt cliff sparked a weeks-long standoff between McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that resulted in fierce criticism of the GOP leader from Trump and members of his own caucus.

Trump on Tuesday continued his criticism of McConnell, including over the debt ceiling. And McConnell faced, and responded to, pushback during the lunch, according to senators in attendance.

“There’s a lot of disagreement about the proposal,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said about the discussion within the Senate GOP lunch, adding that people spoke in both opposition and support of the agreement.

“A lot of people explained [voting] ‘no’ really well, really convincingly,” Cramer added about the GOP discussion.

Once again to educate this moron Cramer: Republicans are violating their constitutionally prescribed duty to honor the full faith and credit of debts incurred by the United States. Fourteenth Amendment, Section Four states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted to reporters that there wouldn’t be the GOP votes to help pave the way for a simple majority debt ceiling vote. 

So Trump fluffer “Leningrad Lindsey” Graham will vote to default on the debt and cause economic catastrophe for the United States, in violation of his constitutionally prescribed duty? Terrorist.

Despite the vocal opposition from some conservatives, several GOP senators signaled that they are inclined to support the agreement setting up the debt ceiling vote.

“People can either vote for it or against the Medicare cuts. ….To me that’s the question. I’m not going to let those cuts to doctors and hospitals go into effect,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

Blunt and Thune both indicated that they are likely to support it. Capito added that she hasn’t made a final decision but that she supports letting Democrats raise the debt ceiling on their own by a simple majority.

“I think that Sen. McConnell has tried to work with Sen. Schumer to get a process … reforming the procedures that can be done on a 50-vote threshold. So I support that as well,” she said.

After 11 Republicans helped Democrats advance a short-term debt hike in early October, McConnell publicly released a letter to Biden warning that “I will not provide such assistance again if your all-Democrat government drifts into another avoidable crisis.”

McConnell, asked if he had violated that statement, argued that the deal stood by his own red line.

“The red line is intact,” he said. “The red line is that you have a simple majority party-line vote on the debt ceiling. That’s exactly where we will end up.”

This evil GQP bastard simply cannot admit that he caved, because he had no choice. Republicans will be blamed for default on the debt and the economic catastrophe which would follow. This is not a good midterm election position.