‘Can You Think of an Alternative?’: No One Happy With Debt-ceiling Deal
Democrats and Republicans complain about the final debt-limit accommodation
President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy appear to have averted default of the US government and the broader economic meltdown which would result.
But no one — certainly not Democrats and not even Republicans — is pleased with the compromise deal the two leaders hammered out over the weekend.
The federal government has hit its cap on paying its bills, and the extraordinary measures which the government has been using in the meantime will run out as early as early June.
Although Congress has approved an increase in the government's debt limit dozens of times under presidents of both parties in past decades, McCarthy and other House Republicans held such an increase hostage to Biden and Democrats agreeing to a raft of cuts in federal spending.
Though it was contentious right down to the end, the deal announced Sunday would suspend the debt limit through January 1, 2025, removing a potential issue in the 2024 presidential election.
In exchange, non-defense spending would remain relatively flat in fiscal year 2024 and increase by 1 percent in fiscal 2025, after certain adjustments to appropriations were made, according to a White House official.
The adjustments include shifting $20 billion in Internal Revenue Service funding to other non-defense areas and rescinding $30 billion in unobligated COVID-19 relief funding, according to the official.
After fiscal 2025, there would be no budget caps, according to the official.
The agreement also calls for temporarily broadening of work requirements for certain adults receiving food assistance.
Asked why he ultimately caved to any cuts — after having initially refusing to negotiate over the debt ceiling — Biden replied, “So if you want to try to make it look like I made some compromise in the debt ceiling, I did not. I made a compromise on the budget,” before adding, with wan laughter, “Sure. Yeah. Well, can you think of an alternative?”
Despite the success in crafting the deal, the work isn't done until the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-led House both pass it as legislation.
And plenty of lawmakers on both sides aren't terribly satisfied with the results.
“None of the things in the bill are Democratic priorities,” Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, complained Sunday.
“So, again, not a bill that will make any Democrats happy, but it's a small enough bill that in the service of not actually destroying the economy this week may get Democratic votes,” Himes added.
And Rep Debbie Dingell (D-Mich) said that the proposal had her “annoyed” because it would take resources away from the IRS that would have gone after tax cheats.
“I’ll tell you something that really has me annoyed — there is nothing I can do about it, it is not something that any of us should ever not…vote for this bill over — but the fact is that they cut back on money being invested in IRS workers,” she said. “Those IRS workers were not going after everyday working men and women, they were going after the revenue.
“They were going after the billionaires and the corporations that need to pay their fair share. That has me annoyed,” Dingell added.
But it's not only Democrats who are displeased. Republicans, too — the very ones who pushed for cuts — also are rankled.
The $886 billion in the debt-limit deal for defense spending apparently isn't good enough for Republican Sen Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina.
“We should raise the debt ceiling, but we should not cripple the military’s ability to defend the nation as a trade-off,” he said. “Spending below inflation is not fully funding the military. Cutting the size of the Navy only helps China.”
And Graham's fellow Republican from the Palmetto State, Rep Ralph Norman, also wasn't satisfied.
“Back in November, the Democrats were fired from leading the House, Republicans were put in office to have fiscal sanity. And from what I am hearing, it's anything but fiscal sanity,” he said. “And for the speaker to — you know, he had guardrails on the bill we put before the Senate on April 26. That is what he was supposed to sell. In fact, a lot of us wanted far more spending cuts than we have.”
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