McCarthy Blarney A Stone In Joe’s Shoe

House Speaker McCarthy’s debt-ceiling offer may have taken wind out of President Biden’s “go ahead & make my day” budget bluff, but question remains whether he can keep convincing his own GOPers to watch his back.

As WSJ’s Kimberley Strassel opined: “Joe Biden has been betting his debt-ceiling strategy on continued GOP House disunity – not a bad wager in light of initial Republican turmoil. But what does the White House do if Speaker McCarthy gets [& keeps] his team onside? We may be about to find out.” That’s because McCarthy tossed an unexpected end run play. In a letter to No. 46 asking for a meeting to discuss the country’s borrowing limit, the Speaker laid out several reasonable spending reduction proposals that might be traded for a debt-ceiling hike. The problem for the pres? “Democrats can no longer claim they don’t know what the GOP is asking for” or, more importantly, that THEY are standing in the way of constructive talks. As Strassel says, “Republicans have made their offer. Over to you, Mr. president.”

Remarkably, says the columnist, “Mr. Biden stiff-armed Mr. McCarthy – again.” The WH is doubling down, she writes, on its warning it’ll be the GOP’s fault if a penny is cut from Joe’s budget & “apocalypse” happens. According to Strassel, the House Dems are being told to raise the nation’s spending limit with “no strings attached” which will clearly be seen by many as “irresponsible brinkmanship wrapped in bad spin.” That’s because “Mr. Biden knows his demand for a [detailed] GOP budget is a canard, unnecessary for talks. Just as the president’s wild $6.9 trillion budget was DOA in this House, any GOP budget resolution is DOA in a Dem Senate.” So, if Biden keeps refusing to negotiate & the House GOP backs up its leader, McCarthy can move to pass a short-term debt-ceiling increase with his modest savings attached, then, “dump it in the [Dem] Senate’s lap … Would the WH then risk default?” If so, WHO would be the bad actor in voters’ eyes?

Davd Soul