Treasury Secretary Jack Lew informed Congress Thursday that they have just until November 5 to raise the debt ceiling. Let the fun for Kevin McCarthy, heir apparent to the House speakership,
begin.
Should Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) ascend to the speakership, which looks more likely by the day, he'll have to decide whether to spend valuable—and limited—political capital in the first few days of his speakership on a treacherous debt limit vote, or to leave it to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to jam it through in the waning days of his reign. He leaves at the end of the month.
The debt limit must be lifted by Nov. 5, according to a letter Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent to Capitol Hill late Thursday. Republicans had been expecting the warning for several days, but Lew's announcement immediately presented a big challenge for McCarthy.
Some aides wonder if Boehner will push a debt ceiling increase across the floor and then immediately resign, handing McCarthy the speakership before Nov. 1.
After that showdown, Republicans will need to turn on a dime to keep the government open. They'll have only a dozen days in session after the debt limit deadline to pass another government spending bill. The latest funding bill, which most House Republicans opposed, expires on Dec. 11.
Lew actually did McCarthy a big favor by telling him and Boehner now that they've got just a month to get this one done. By all appearances Boehner really does want to leave having prevented what turmoil he can, and the debt ceiling hike is nothing but turmoil among the extremists. The concern for McCarthy would be if Boehner's working with Democrats once again to prevent disaster would create backlash against the whole leadership team, McCarthy included. Considering there's going to be backlash against McCarthy for any number of things he's going to have to do as speaker, they might as well fix this one really big thing now.
Then McCarthy could perhaps work on getting the House to actually do some work, maybe rewrite the schedule so that it has more than just a dozen days in session from November 5 until December 11.