Ball’s in your court now, Joe.
With the passage of the House GOP’s proposal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit — the Limit, Save, Grow Act; a minor masterpiece of political horse-trading from Speaker Kevin McCarthy — it’s now President Joe Biden and his party’s turn to move beyond shrill grandstanding when it comes to our fiscal future.
As McCarthy put it, “Now the Democrats need to do their job.”
Or, as the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget put it: “The Limit, Save, Grow Act is a reasonable proposal to raise the debt limit and begin addressing our nation’s severe fiscal challenges. We must not threaten default or play chicken with the full faith and credit of the U.S. dollar, and we applaud the House for passing a debt limit increase.”
And: “It’s time for the Senate and White House to come to the negotiating table.”
Trouble is, Biden’s strategy so far has been as irresponsible as the rest of his economic policy.
He’s refused since February to take meetings with the speaker on this crucial question — putting the nation at real risk for the sake of scoring political points.
And it continues even now.
Chief White House flack Karine Jean-Pierre screeched from her podium Wednesday that “this bill has no chance of becoming law,” insisting that “congressional Republicans must act immediately and without conditions to avoid default.”
No, Karine: the Republicans acted to do just that.
It’s your boss and your party who are now refusing to act.
Witness Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s response: “I urge Speaker McCarthy to stop wasting any more time on this DOA, dead on arrival, bill. Time is running out for Congress to work together to avoid catastrophe.”
That’s right: Somehow it’s the GOP driving the nation off a fiscal cliff.
Not the Dems who refuse to back off on any of their insane spending demands.
And this come after McCarthy’s repeated movements toward reasonable compromises with the president himself were all shamefully rebuffed.
Keep in mind: If Biden continues his brinkmanship and draws this out till July, there’s a real chance Uncle Sam will technically go into default.
That doesn’t mean economic apocalypse, but it could be the macro shock that sends us into a deep recession.
And it certainly will damage the credit of the nation, in every sense, going forward.
All that risk, and any ensuing damage, are now 100% owned by Biden and his Congressional enablers.
And their endless, cynical vaporing can’t change that fact.