WASHINGTON – Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and a portion of the caucus he leads voted with Democrats to break a filibuster Thursday night, narrowly avoiding a crisis that would have seen the United States hit its borrowing limit and stop paying. their debts, almost certainly throwing the world into a financial meltdown.
That’s good, right?
Well, the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate weren’t holding hands and singing songs about it.
Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rose to rip off a Republican strip for bringing the process to the point of crisis in the first place. “The Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I’m glad their risky attitude didn’t work out,” he said.
According to Politico, a shouting match ensued in the chamber, with Republicans criticizing Schumer for his lack of courtesy. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin was also angry at Schumer. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was angry at McConnell and said the vote was “complete capitulation“And that” they kicked our ass. “
Here’s the real catch: the crisis was averted, but the problem is not going to go away. The angry bipartisan deal only postpones the debt ceiling issue until December, so the same senseless fight that has been threatening the world economy is not over yet.
That was part of the course in Washington for the past two weeks, a time when President Joe Biden’s administration faced at least three votes of existential importance to him and his country. He managed to avoid a total disaster on all of them, but failed to solve any of them. They just threw them a bit along the way.
In addition to the debt ceiling, Biden narrowly avoided the prospect of a government shutdown if Congress did not vote to continue funding the government. That solution only established the need for an additional extension before December 3.
Then there’s the fate of two intertwined bills that together form the core of Biden’s government agenda: an infrastructure bill that has some bipartisan support, and a social program and climate change bill that needs his own party. to approve the budget reconciliation package. By last Thursday, everyone thought, the first should pass the House and the second should reach an agreement. But two Democratic senators whose votes will be needed are refusing to play along with a deal for the social and climate bill, and that led to a large part of the Democratic House caucus refusing to pass the first one. A postponement of a vote means that the two bills have not died, and with them all of Biden’s promise as president. But the negotiations drag on.
In that case, what everyone expected to be a tense few hours has turned into a bitter few weeks, with more weeks ahead.
Is there progress towards solving these things? It is difficult to count.
Some say McConnell “blinked” in the confrontation over his party’s shameless game on debt. He says he still wants to force Democrats to use the reconciliation process to resolve the debt ceiling on their own, while Democrats keep saying they will refuse to do so and force him to capitulate again.
Meanwhile, hopes that this whole silly but potentially disastrous crisis would push Manchin closer to voting to forge exceptions to filibuster proved fruitless; he has only delved further, describing Thursday’s filibuster as the bulwark of democracy. That’s an issue that will carry over into the voting rights legislation that Manchin himself has tried to negotiate with Republicans, trying to show (so far without success) that removing obstructionism is unnecessary.
And within his own party, Manchin appears to have dug into opposing a bill of the size and scope that Biden and most of the Democratic group are willing to support. This week, called the proposed legislation reflection of a “society of rights”, which attracted the response fire of Senator Bernie Sanders. Manchin’s only Democratic ally in this fight, Senator Krysten Sinema, has come under increasing attack from her Senate colleagues, which seems likely only to cement her idea that she is a laudable nonconformist for staunchly opposing her own party. .
Meanwhile, Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who have long represented their party’s moderate establishment, appear to be firmly on the side of the progressive caucus in Congress. While Manchin and Sinema describe themselves as “centrists” who oppose the “extreme left” of their party, their party leadership is indicating that social and climate proposals are at the very center of what they represent.
The good news for Democrats is that, as angry as they seem to be negotiating with each other, they are still, by all accounts, negotiating.
And while Republicans make it clear, as they have long done under McConnell’s Congressional leadership, that working to ensure the failure of Democratic presidents remains their top priority, they also demonstrated, at least briefly, that they are not on the sidelines. all poised to set the US economy on fire for no other reason than to hit Biden. Democrats have the option, if they want to use it, to go it alone in the next two months to raise the debt ceiling high enough that it won’t be a potential problem again for decades. Many, including Manchin, think they should seize that opportunity, although for now Schumer says that’s not what they plan to do.
Two weeks ago, it seemed like all of these story lines were heading toward a conclusion. Instead, they continue, and on the same terms. In what seemed like a life and death span for Biden’s presidency, he didn’t quite make it, but he lived to fight another day. The potential resolution remains unclear, but in the days ahead, it’s a good bet that the emphasis will remain on the fight.
Reference-www.thestar.com