WEDNESDAY 5/24/23
We’re ‘Nowhere Close,’ but ‘Don’t Worry’ – That’s the message from Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (above) after talks with the White House broke down again Tuesday on the debt ceiling issue nine days ahead of potential economic pandemonium.
“Well look. There are certain things that divide us and we know what that is,” McCarthy told reporters (The Washington Post). “You cannot spend more money next year than we did this year, clear as day. We’ve got to help people get back to work with work requirements. You have to cut this red tape where people can build again in America. You know there’s a lot of avenues out there that they’ve got to find. You’ve got to come to agreement there.”
Line in the sand: McCarthy emphasized that Democrats want to “spend more money next year than they did this year.
“That’s the red line. Not gonna happen.”
And so it goes.
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Primary Season – Trial Season – Manhattan judge Juan Merchan has scheduled the criminal trial against Donald J. Trump in the case of alleged hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to begin March 25, 2024, smack-dab in the middle of GOP presidential primary season. The judge advised the ex-president to cancel all obligations for the duration, which could last months, according to The Guardian. Trump sat in on the proceedings via video, from his Mar-a-Lago home.
Merchan also barred Trump’s attorneys from disseminating evidence to third parties or posting it on social media, and he required some sensitive material to be kept only by those attorneys.
Trump boilerplate reaction: The former prez took to his own site, Truth Social, to claim “First Amendment rights,” saying his “freedom of speech” had been violated by scheduling the trial “right in the middle of primary season.”
Meanwhile: Fresh off a $10 million verdict against Trump related to sexual abuse and defamation, writer and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll filed “very substantial” additional charges after the former president’s appearance at a CNN Town Hall last week. Carroll alleges Trump made “disparaging remarks” against her in the CNN appearance.
--TL
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(President Biden cut short his Indo-Asian tour last week to work with Speaker McCarthy on a debt ceiling deal by June 1. Biden met as part of the G7 in Hiroshima, Japan, last week.)
Nine Days to Economic Collapse – A reminder that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the government will have to stop making some payments after June 1 if Congress does not raise the debt limit. The good news is that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says that while there’s no deal with the White House yet, a debt limit meeting Monday was “productive.”
A key negotiator for McCarthy, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said negotiators were able to “better explain” to each other the policies over which they were fighting for or against, Roll Call reports.
“I think the tone tonight was better than any other time we had discussions,” McCarthy said. “I felt it was productive … I think we were able to really focus on the areas of difference.”
Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), said whatever doesn’t get approved in the debt limit negotiations regarding energy infrastructure permitting (his area of expertise) could be moved separately after Congress approves a deal.
Meanwhile, tax increases in the Biden agenda are not part of the discussion.
“We’re not looking at revenue,” McCarthy said.
Speaker McCarthy said he and Biden will be talking every day now, with the goal of reaching a deal by the end of this week so that both chambers can vote for it next week.
--TL
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Meanwhile This Week
Will the Debt Ceiling Crush Us? – Fresh off his return from the Group of Seven Summit in Hiroshima, Japan (above), President Biden has agreed to re-open talks with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on the debt ceiling. About 11 days remain until almost certain economic calamity, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who called June 1 a “hard deadline,” NBC News reports.
“My assumption is that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, there will be hard choices to make about what bills go unpaid,” Yellen said on Meet the Press.
Negotiations have been on-again, off-again between a White House that does not want to cede its hard-fought attempt to reverse 40 years of trickle-down Reaganomics and a GOP that refuses to let Biden’s Neo New Deal happen. They ended abruptly late last Friday to leave all those concerned feeling a bit like Adam West’s character in the mid-‘60s Batman TV show, thrown into a trick death room, by the villain of the week, with the ceiling closing in on the floor. Holy crushed agenda, Batman.
Negotiators for the White House and the Speaker – led by Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) – ran for about two-and-a-half hours Sunday night, with the “crux of the talks” centering on the extent and duration of federal spending, The Washington Postreports.
Going to XIV?: In a press conference at the G7 Summit, Biden said he believes he has the authority to invoke the 14thAmendment to raise the debt ceiling. Sunday’s negotiations were set after a phone call between Biden and McCarthy during the president’s flight home, and in a Capitol Hill press conference following, McCarthy told reporters; “My discussion with the president, I think, was pretty productive. I think we can solve some of the problems if he understands what we are looking at.”
Yep, that’s as positive as it gets.
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What’s Left of Bahkmut? -- Nothing – it “now lives only in our hearts,” Volodymyr Zelniskyy said in his appearance at the G7 summit (WaPo), though the Ukrainian president disputed Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia has full occupation and control of the devastated city. Zelenskyy compared Russia’s destruction to that of the G7’s host city, Hiroshima, Japan, which was destroyed by the first use of a nuclear bomb, by the U.S., in 1945.
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Up on the Hill – Aside from this little effort to raise the debt ceiling in a few days to avoid crashing the economy, the full House of Representatives is in session Monday through Thursday, while the Senate remains on break. The full Senate is then in session Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week, after Memorial Day, Monday. That’s how much time is left to stick with a commitment to pay our bills.
---Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa