House GOP Eyes New Demand in Debt Talks

[applegrove]

House GOP Eyes New Demand in Debt Talks

March 23, 2023 at 8:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2023/03/23/house-gop-eyes-new-demand-in-debt-talks/

"SNIP........

“A growing bloc of House Republicans is urging Speaker Kevin McCarthy to consider demands beyond the budget — like energy permitting — in the party’s opening offer to Democrats on raising the debt limit,” Politico reports.

“While many GOP lawmakers say they’ve stayed intentionally mum on how their party leaders should proceed with talks, a growing number are now floating their own ideas to stem the looming fiscal crisis. One idea that’s been gaining traction recently is linking the debt limit debate to the GOP’s proposal to speed up energy permitting.”

........SNIP"

[Johonny]

1. I assume the Dems will simply wait until Kevin comes crawling to them

because there's no way he will get enough of his members to pass anything and all their ideas are stupid, destructive, or stupidly destructive.

[PortTack]

2. Exactly!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Key GOP chair: This is 'the best time' for a debt ceiling crisis

The GOP is going to force a default on our national debt

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/key-gop-chair-best-time-debt-ceiling-crisis-rcna76399

This morning, the majority leader returned to the floor and reemphasized the same point. “Earlier this week, House GOP members, including the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said now is ‘the best time’ to double down on debt ceiling brinkmanship and hostage taking,” Schumer said, adding, “This is a stupendously bad idea. This is an idea that has no logic, has no linear thinking in it at all.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the Democratic leader was taking some creative license. Perhaps the original quote wasn’t as outrageous as a three-word excerpt made it seem. Maybe the context would be more forgiving.

Or maybe not. Punchbowl News reported yesterday:

The recent collapse of two large regional banks rattled global markets, raising concerns about financial stability during a precarious moment for the U.S. economy. Would this backdrop of uncertainty, we wondered, cause House Republicans to grow wary of launching a debt limit showdown? From our conversations with top GOP lawmakers at the House Republican retreat this week in Orlando, the answer is a hard no. Instead of expressing caution, senior GOP lawmakers are leaning into their plans to demand spending cuts in return for raising the nation’s borrowing limit.

It was this same report that quoted Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, saying, “This is the best time to do it.”,....

I’m reminded of a column The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell’s wrote last week that the GOP congressman might want to read.

A plea to lawmakers: If it was a bad idea to threaten default on U.S. debt before, it would be astoundingly, colossally idiotic now. Recent financial-market turmoil — in regional U.S. banks, as well as some of the larger European institutions — suggests there might be much more fragility in the financial system than previously understood. In a sane world, politicians might respond to this new information constructively.

Alas, as Arrington has made clear, “colossally idiotic” tactics are taking precedence over “constructive” policymaking.

[Zorro]

4. Yes they will

It is an exercise in futility to expect crazy people to act rationally. They cannot be reasoned with.