WEDNESDAY 1/18/23

(Pictured: Yellen)

UPDATE: Summer's Almost Here -- Yeah, it's winter in most of the country, and raining or storming where it's not. But summer will come too quickly if newly minted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) doesn't reverse course on his tactic of "negotiating" (holding hostage) the debt ceiling in return for cuts/retractions in the Biden White House's rather Rooseveltian programs (bipartisan infrastructure spending, the Inflation Reduction Act). The federal government bumped its $31.4-trillion debt limit Thursday afternoon, but to prevent a global economic meltdown over McCarthy's Republican caucus' refusal to approve funds to pay for a budget already approved, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen took "extraordinary" steps to prevent default, The Washington Post reports. Those mostly "technical" tactics raise the level the government is allowed to borrow to hold off default, and possibly global economic depression, to this summer.

"I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States," Yellen wrote to McCarthy.

Bumping Against the Debt Ceiling

TUESDAY 1/17/23

It is happening again: The federal government hits the $31.4-trillion debt limit Thursday, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is threatening to keep the government from paying current bills, which would lead to what The Washington Post calls “global economic calamity.” McCarthy and his House GOP caucus want Biden administration budget concessions in exchange for bumping up the limit. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin last Friday said the White House would begin taking “extraordinary measures” Thursday to prevent the “fiscal showdown” with House Republicans. Without taking such measures, the government would not be able to continue to borrow to pay existing bills.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called for raising the limit, in an op-ed obviously directed at McCarthy and the non-MAGA members of his caucus.

“Something or someone has to give because the debt limit has to be raised,” the WSJ op-ed reads. “The U.S. has already borrowed and spent the money, and debt held by the public is a contract. Nobody sane in Washington,” it continues, perhaps calling out the Matt Gaetzes and Lauren Boeberts of the House GOP caucus, “wants to be blamed for triggering a default, and the bond market ructions it would cause, which means it almost certainly won’t happen.”

•••

Santos’ Russian Connection -- A report in The Washington Post connects Rep. George Santos (R-NY), the freshman representative who told many lies about his resume, with the cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for his involvement with the Russian energy industry. 

The report says Vekselsberg’s cousin, Andrew Intrater, with his wife, each contributed the maximum-allowed $5,800 to Santos’ campaign and since 2020 contributed tens of thousands of dollars to committees connected to the congressman (who first ran, unsuccessfully, for his seat in 2020), WaPo says. 

Intrater has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into Harbor City Capital, a Florida company where Santos briefly worked and which the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme (Santos has not been implicated in the probe, so far). 

What’s more, Intrater’s connection in 2016 and 2017 to Donald J. Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen, was investigated in the Mueller Report.

Should Santos Step Down?: The Nassau County, New York arm of the GOP says “yes,” but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who traded Santos’ vote in the 15-round speaker election last week in exchange for letting the congressman take office would rather let him serve out his two years. 

The Big Question May Be: Is this further evidence of Russian influence in the MAGA wing of the GOP?

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa