Lawrence O'Donnell explains why the 46 House Democrats who voted No actually strengthen Biden's hand

[Celerity]

in future negotiations with McCarthy, and would have voted 'Yes' in enough numbers to pass it IF needed.

That parts starts at 4:20, but the whole video from the beginning to the end is very good.

transcript

https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/86421899

snip

The Democratic leader of the House representatives. Hakeem Jeffries is one of the serious people who knows how to govern some of his democratic members of the House who voted against the bill. And some democratic senators who will probably vote against the bill are playing an important part in the ongoing legislative drama in the House representatives and in the Senate. Throughout his negotiations with Kevin McCarthy, president Biden had to repeatedly say things like, I won't be able to get enough Democrats to support that item. And Kevin McCarthy had to repeatedly say, I won't be able to get enough Republicans to support that item.

And so tonight, Democrats voting against the bill were actually strengthening Joe Biden's credibility in future negotiations with Kevin McCarthy and Republicans voting against the bill were strengthening Kevin McCarthy's credibility in future negotiations. So everyone involved, people voting? Yes. People voting. No. Everyone involved is actually playing their part in solving this debt ceiling crisis in Congress very much including the Democrats who are voting against the bill, each of whom really would vote for it if passing the bill actually required their individual vote because the Democrats are the responsibility party in governing.

Democrats act responsibly and Republicans act irresponsibly. The pattern has been set for years now. It was true before Donald Trump when Republican President George W. Bush came into office and he had a 1 trillion surplus handed to him after the Democratic presidency of Bill Clinton. George W. Bush immediately wiped out the budget surplus with a gigantic tax cut, which fed the deficit and increased the national debt and of course eventually required an increase in the debt ceiling, which Democrats did not try to block.

Serious high stakes negotiations often include inconsistent statements. In some situations they might be called lies. Many striking labor unions have at times accepted provisions in their new labor contract that they eventually agreed to, that they insisted they would never accept. That is the way negotiations work. You use the strongest possible language for as long as you can and then you adjust. Joe Biden's Most vivid apparent inconsistency, which was actually always just a negotiating position, was Joe Biden insisting for months that he would not negotiate.

That turned out to be an extremely important negotiating tactic because the very first big victory Kevin McCarthy reported to his members and was still insisting last week was a major victory. When he unveiled disagreement was the very fact that Joe Biden agreed to negotiate after saying that he wouldn't. The Republicans scored Joe Biden negotiating as a win. They escort it as a win simply getting in the room to negotiate with the president of the United States. The only negotiators who think being allowed to negotiate is a victory are the losers.

When you listen to Republicans who are opposed to the bill, what you will not hear from any of them is how they would've forced Joe Biden to compromise more with Republicans. Same thing with Democrats who will vote against this bill. The most they will say is something general like I think Democrats could have gotten a better deal in the negotiations. None of those people have ever been in such a negotiation and none of them will ever give you an example of how they could obtain a better agreement with Kevin McCarthy and they will never be pressed by interviewers on that point.

snip

It was a team effort to force Kevin McCarthy right now to accept this agreement. Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries secretly started a parliamentary process called a discharge petition in the House, representatives in January that shocked Republicans when they discovered how well developed procedurally the Democrats discharge petition was in May when Hakeem Jeffries revealed the strategy of using the discharge petition to in effect seize control of the house floor from Republicans and get a vote on a clean debt ceiling bill. All 213 Democrats in the house signed their names to that discharge petition and it apparently scared Republicans into thinking that it just might work.

Democrats signed a discharge petition that they can release a clean debt ceiling bill and they only need a handful of Republicans. The Democrats needed five Republicans to sign that discharge petition and they could pass it. The Democrats were trying to find those five Republicans and the Republicans were very afraid that they would find those five Republicans and that put all the more pressure on Kevin McCarthy to reach a deal with Joe Biden. The kind of deal Kevin McCarthy said he would never make. Joe Biden is the most experienced president who has ever had to negotiate a debt ceiling Bill. Negotiating on the debt ceiling is a 21st century phenomenon that only two presidents have really had to do. President Obama and President Biden at the president's side throughout this negotiation was his highly respected director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, who previously worked on the appropriations committee and the house representatives where she earned respect and credibility with Republicans, including Kevin McCarthy.

Also on the president's side in these negotiations was Gene Sperling, who first worked on economic policy in the White House under President Bill Clinton 30 years ago. He also served in the Obama White House, same with Steve Rachetti, who began his White House service 30 years ago in the Clinton White House where he was involved in every legislative action on the Clinton agenda. Steve Rachetti also served in the Obama Biden administration and is now Deputy White House chief of staff in the Biden Harris administration. The president and his negotiating team are serious people and Hakeem Jeffries is right. They did an incredibly good job.

[ZonkerHarris]

1. Plus those 46 get to use those votes to help keep themselves in office in tight districts

[TwilightZone]

4. Exactly.

There was a lot of tactical voting going on once it was understood that it was going to easily pass.

[FakeNoose]

5. That's why Nancy Pelosi used to allow the progressives have their protest votes

Not always, but she was able to work with them and still get the major legislation passed. When she absolutely HAD to have their votes, she got them. I hope Hakeem Jeffries was paying attention and taking notes.

[Hekate]

2. I often find myself thinking O'Donnell is a bit full of himself,then he proves his knowledge is real

…yet again.

TY for this, Celerity.

[usonian]

3. Taking a stand that's off-center when the vote does not afffect the result moves the conversation.

It's called the Overton Window
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

Voices are heard which would otherwise wouldn't.
Do you serously expect MSM to air them otherwise?

And "Centrist" Joe Biden has an excellent record of progressive achievements, with lots more to come..

The demographics of voters are moving younger, less white racist and more immigrant (aren't most of us immigrants, a few generations back?). Having these progressive voices heard attracts those with something to gain from a benevolent government, unlike those who fear they have everything to lose. (like their phantom "privilege" that the rewriters of history want them to believe.)

[Hortensis]

6. Umhm. I like O'Donnell a lot for insight into congress.

He's said those still inside are careful not to say too much to him now that he's on the journalism side, but 25 years as a senior senate staffer to senate leader Daniel Patrick Moynihan, managing the finance committee, etcetera, shows big time.

[calimary]

7. Yep. That load of actual hands-on experience of his serves US ALL well.

[crickets]

8. Thanks so much for posting this.

Thanks also for posting a link to the transcript for those who'd rather read than watch the vid.

Lawrence does a masterful job of walking us through the negotiations and the aftermath. I'm so proud of Joe and the Democrats for how well things turned out in the end. Screw Repubs for putting the country through this at all.