This past Thursday was only four days ago, but when it comes to the budget talks and the debt ceiling, it might as well have been last year. After all, it was on Thursday when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who’s had little positive to say about the process of late, told reporters, “I see the path that we can come to an agreement.” The Republican leader went on to raise the prospect of a handshake agreement by the weekend.
The next morning, Republicans negotiating on McCarthy’s behalf walked away from the negotiating table. They returned hours later, only to depart the White House again late Friday without anything resembling a deal.
On Saturday, the House speaker said the negotiations were “moving backward,” which was accurate, and it’s worth understanding why. Politico published this striking report yesterday:
Congressional Republicans have not only rejected a new White House offer to essentially freeze domestic spending at [fiscal year 2023] levels, they’re now demanding work requirements for SNAP recipients that are more rigid than those they originally proposed. They’re also insisting on adding new immigration provisions from the GOP’s recently passed border bill — which, mind you, Republicans didn’t include in their own debt ceiling bill.
The Washington Post ran a related report that largely mirrored this summary of the policy landscape, though it added an additional detail: While demanding sweeping cuts to domestic spending, GOP officials are also pushing “for higher defense spending.”
Taking note of what was plainly true, PunchBowl News’ Jake Sherman quoted Democratic sources saying that Republicans’ demands “keep going further to the right.”
For his part, McCarthy described all of this as “inaccurate,” though he wouldn’t say, specifically, which part of the reporting was false.
As for why all of this matters, there are a few angles to these developments to keep in mind. The first is that they’re not as surprising as…
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