House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will put his shaky control of the thin Republican majority on the line this week with a bid to pass a bill slashing spending that is designed to jam President Joe Biden.
The standoff over the debt crisis is deepening between the Republican speaker and the Democratic president, which could be fateful for the country and both their political careers. And the ability of each side to unify their parties and shape public opinion to avoid – or dispense – blame will be crucial.
The clash is over the need to raise the government’s borrowing authority within months, without which the United States will default on its debts in a way that could send the domestic and global economies spiraling and could inflict deep pain and job losses on Americans. Republicans are seeking to use the situation as leverage to gut Biden’s domestic program.
The president, as he moves toward making his reelection campaign official as early as this week, says the GOP must not hold the nation hostage to what he says is an extreme agenda. The debt ceiling showdown is important to Biden as he seeks to protect the legislative achievements of his term so far and to portray an image of strength and purpose. He’s been building toward a reelection pitch partly by portraying House Republicans as the epitome of the chaos and disruption of ex-President Donald Trump, who is leading polls of the GOP primary.
McCarthy is seeking to unite his party around him to pass a bill that would raise the debt ceiling for a year in exchange for deep spending cuts. The measure would limit growth in government spending to 1% a year, block student loan forgiveness, rescind new funding for the Internal Revenue Service, introduce tougher work requirements for Medicaid, and repeal green energy tax credits in an effort to strangle Biden’s attempts to create a low-carbon economy to fight…
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