Hours before Friday’s strong jobs report, the Senate sent the debt ceiling deal to President Joe Biden for his signature, defusing the economic bomb that would have resulted from the U.S. government’s defaulting on its debts has been defused. And while there were no winners, there was one clear loser: The far right can no longer sabotage the president — or the country.
Let’s be clear: This deal wasn’t a victory for anyone, any more than narrowly avoiding plummeting off a cliff is a victory for a driver. Democrats should have lifted the debt ceiling permanently last year and never let Republicans leverage threatening the American economy. Instead, we have an agreement that further tightens work requirements on hungry Americans. (Some will point to the Congressional Budget Office’s score that said newly exempted categories of people, such as applicants who are experiencing homelessness, will actually expand the food stamp program; experts are skeptical.) It cuts IRS funding, thereby reducing scrutiny of tax cheats (and increasing the deficit). It aggravates climate change by expediting one of the pet projects of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. And it asks nothing in revenue from the wealthy or from the corporations that have made out like bandits, most recently under President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
The truth is Biden’s economic record is strong — surprisingly so, judging by media coverage and polls of consumer sentiment.
Nor is it a “win” for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., no matter what he claims. Yes, he is still speaker, and yes, the global economy isn’t on fire. But if the bar is that low, then it’s on the floor.
Recall that the Republicans’ opening bid in negotiations was set in stone months ago. Instead, McCarthy tried to get Biden to negotiate without committing his members to vote for any cuts — a failed stunt that gave the recent dealmaking an unnecessarily tight timeline. Though the deal McCarthy struck preserves the…
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