UPDATE: Wednesday, May 24, 2023 · 6:48:31 PM +00:00
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Merlin196357
Looks like the House Freedom Nihilist let McCarthy go back to the White House to tell Biden he has to accept spending cuts. Oh, and McCarthy says that there will be no default on the debt ceiling. Yeah. Right. Here are the latest list of hostage demands:
Negotiations are focused on finding agreement on a 2024 budget year limit. Republicans have set aside their demand to roll back spending to 2022 levels, but say that next year’s government spending must be less than it is now. But the White House instead offered to freeze spending at current 2023 numbers.
By sparing defense and some veterans accounts from reductions, the Republicans would shift the bulk of spending reductions to other federal programs, an approach that breaks a tradition in Congress of budget cap parity…
But what, if anything, Democrats would get if they agreed to deeper spending cuts than Biden’s team has proposed is uncertain.
The White House has continued to argue that deficits can be reduced by ending tax breaks for wealthier households and some corporations, but McCarthy said he told the president at their February meeting that raising revenue from tax hikes is off the table.
The negotiators are now also debating the duration of a 1% cap on annual spending growth going forward, with Republicans dropping their demand for a 10-year cap to six years, but the White House offering only one year, for 2025.
As one of the folks in the Comments section noticed, Republicans are raising the debt ceiling if they get all their demands. That’s all Democrats will get. A debt ceiling raise if all of Biden’s Agenda is undone.
And Republicans still want work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid, which already exist. And a GI Joe with a Kung Fu grip, and a train set, and a pony.
Looks like the House Freedom Caucus nihilists have yanked on McCarthy’s leash again when it comes to shooting the debt ceiling hostage. According to two reports, one from NPR and the other from Yahoo! Finance, the House nihilists are not the least bit happy with where the “negotiations” are going. Therefore, they are giving McCarthy new orders to just make the Senate vote for the House ransom demands. And McCarthy has called another halt to those meetings with the White House in response.
McCarthy is blaming the White House for all of this shit, by the way.
But what continues to mystify me is how anyone on Wall Street or in the media believes that McCarthy can deliver on a “bipartisan deal” over raising the debt ceiling. He can’t. And it’s as if Wall Street and the media are ingesting stupid pills over this.
First up, from the House Nihilists:
The rollercoaster debt-ceiling talks are back at a stalemate amid a full-throated effort by the most conservative members of Kevin McCarthy’s caucus to preemptively kill any bipartisan deal.
Influential Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) told a right-wing host Tuesday night that “my position is to hold the damn line” and force a GOP-only plan into law, one of the many similar comments from Republicans in recent hours.
“I don’t even care about the negotiations going on at the White House,” he added.
The GOP's internal dynamics are having a direct effect on the talks. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly shifted his tone Tuesday just hours after optimistic comments in the Oval Office.
Late Tuesday night, a lead member of McCarthy’s negotiating team told reporters that talks were now off unless they see “fundamental change” from the White House.
And that “fundamental change” is that the White House must accept that this all be done with spending cuts. Period. “It’s our way or the highway!”
The outsized power of the House Freedom Caucus
The conservative distaste surfacing online and in person reflects the official position of the powerful House Freedom Caucus.
The group said last week that McCarthy should refuse to negotiate and force the Senate to simply pass a sprawling GOP proposal that rolls back large pieces of Biden’s accomplishments.
“There should be no further discussion until the Senate passes the legislation,” the group of over 40 lawmakers said in a statement.
Oh, and that June 1st deadline? The House Freedom Caucus simply does not believe it exists. You cannot trust anything from the Biden Administration is their argument.
Then we have the more “nuanced” version of events from NPR:
There are few signs of progress as the U.S. teeters close to the brink of an unprecedented default on its debt.
Republican negotiators are expressing frustration at the state of staff-level talks, a day after President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met at the White House and expressed optimism that a deal could be reached to raise the debt ceiling.
"There is a significant gap between where we are and where they are," Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday night. "Unless and until the White House recognizes that this is a spending problem, then we're gonna continue to have a significant gap."
Graves, who is a top proxy for Speaker McCarthy in talks, said no additional meetings with the White House negotiators had been scheduled as of Tuesday evening. Graves said that he and North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key McCarthy ally involved in the talks, are ready to meet again as long as it's not a "rehashing of the same discussion."
"They have their work to do, and we have our work to do," McHenry said. "But the onus is on them on spending."
It appears that the poor Republican hostage takers do not want to keep hearing that the deficit can be reduced by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy. And it makes them a little pissy when Biden keeps bringing this up. No, really.
Meanwhile, the White House is still talking about reducing the deficit by closing tax loopholes and raising taxes on billionaires, which has already been rejected by Republicans.
Now, this all sounds kind of good that Biden is not giving the store away, but this is the problem with these private ransom demands. We do not know what is going on, and according to Digby, Biden has floated “Medicare reforms” to keep the hostage taking going. I have no idea if that is legit or not, but it does scare me.
But NPR misses the whole point that if Biden does give into some of McCarthy’s hostage demands, it will not be enough for the House Freedom Caucus. And they have the power to end McCarthy’s so called speakership. They want everything on that list of demands.
Anyone think that Democrats will accept the list of hostage demands? It’s a bridge way too far. It’s a great way to lose your seat the next time elections roll around. And it is what the House Nihilists want. Give in to our demands, or we will shoot the hostage.
When will it dawn on Biden and the rest that McCarthy does not control the House?