During a CNBC appearance last week, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman insisted, “In modern times, the debt ceiling is raised with negotiations.” The idea was that the ongoing crisis might be scary, and might put millions at risk, but it’s become a normal part of the American political process.
As we discussed on Friday, the observation was plainly incorrect, though he wasn’t the only one making this mistake. Over the weekend, The New York Times published an op-ed from Michael McConnell, a law professor and a former federal appeals court judge. The opinion piece was largely focused on rejecting the 14th Amendment solution, but it also included this argument:
[T]he House Republicans’ insistence on negotiations and compromise is not hostage taking. It is the ordinary stuff of politics.
No, it’s not.
I can appreciate why there are elements of the larger debate that are subjective, but this isn’t one of them. The question of whether debt ceiling crises are “the ordinary stuff of politics” is not a matter of opinion. The underlying question is an entirely knowable thing: In recent history, have these tactics been common or not?
The answer is readily available — and I have no idea why anyone would deny its accuracy.
As New York magazine’s Jon Chait explained yesterday, “It is true that, historically, debt-ceiling bills have also been wrapped together with other measures. But what [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy is doing is not that. He is threatening to refuse to lift the debt ceiling unless President Biden grants him concessions.” Chait added that the claim from Michael McConnell’s op-ed is “totally false.”
Indeed, it was especially surprising to see the opinion piece dismiss the idea that the ongoing Republican-imposed crisis “is not hostage taking.” We know the opposite is true because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already admitted as much.
In fact, in 2011, immediately after the original debt-ceiling fiasco was resolved, the…
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