After taking the government’s ability to pay its bills hostage, Republicans declared two things to be untouchable: The defense budget and tax cuts for billionaires.
Social Security and Medicare are supposedly off the table for spending cuts, too; but the Treasury warned Social Security checks may not go out after June 1, 2023. So those benefits and their recipients are hostages, too.
Washington D.C. has gone to war over the federal budget. Republicans argue the government spends too much, but won’t specify what should be cut, only what shouldn’t, because they don’t want to be blamed for cutting popular programs. They tried to toss that hot potato in Biden’s lap.
Social Security, Medicare, the Pentagon, and debt interest add up to three-fourths of the federal budget, which doesn’t leave much else. And by some accounts, they want to increase military spending.
Steve Benen of MSNBC says (here), “McCarthy & Co. love government spending, just so long as it’s going to priorities they deem worthwhile.” That’s really what this is about. Republicans are attacking spending on things they oppose.
Generally speaking, that’s anything helping “working families, students, and low-income Americans.” Medicaid, especially, is a GOP target; the work requirements they’re pushing for will force an estimated 600,000 people off that program.
What it boils down to is Republican are selfish: They want to help themselves, but not anyone else.
Biden is trying to negotiate on a give-and-take basis, but many Republicans want him to make large concessions in return for nothing more than a 1-year debt ceiling raise, which would put the country through this again next year.
The Hill believes the ultimate resolution, if there is one, will be a bipartisan compromise that will need votes of both Republicans and Democrats to pass (see story here). Biden appears to be trying for a negotiated deal if he can get one, while holding the 14th Amendment in reserve.
Meanwhile, as a settlement continues to elude negotiators, a “significant group” of House Republicans have begun questioning whether June 1 is the actual deadline to raise the debt ceiling, CNBC reported on Tuesday, May 23 (see story here). If it isn’t raised by then, I guess we’ll find out on June 1.