Finger pointing
Once it was announced, the debt limit deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was likely to pass.
The country was bumping up against a catastrophic default, something that has never happened and would cause a ripple effect across the global economy. For most lawmakers, it was a choice between accepting the deal or risking default.
Fear of default prevailed and the Senate cleared the bill with 63 votes late Thursday night.
But for the past few weeks, if you’ve paid attention at all, you’ve probably observed a lot of finger pointing anyway. Democrats claimed Republicans were holding the economy hostage in order to cut spending important to Americans. Republicans claimed Democrats wanted to just keep recklessly spending money without any limits.
There were political reasons for all of this bickering (which was on full display in a House Rules Committee meeting where Democrats and Republicans spent hours arguing back and forth about why they were approving the deal to begin with), but first I want to establish a timeline.
The country breached the debt ceiling in January, forcing the Treasury Department to take “extraordinary measures” in order to keep paying the country’s bills. In order to borrow new money to pay for already-approved spending, Congress would have to raise the debt limit.
Bills that deal with revenue have to start in the House, so Biden called on Republicans to give him a “clean debt ceiling bill,” meaning legislation that would lift the debt ceiling without any other provisions attached to it. Republicans said no, they would only give him a bill that cut spending. They called on Biden to negotiate. He said no.
Democrats thought it would be difficult for McCarthy to pass a debt ceiling bill because he has such a narrow majority in the House. He surprised them by passing a bill on April 26 that would have cut spending and repealed many of the Biden administration’s legislative victories from 2022 and 2021.
The bill, which passed with only Republican votes, did not have enough support to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.
That forced negotiations between Biden and McCarthy, which ultimately ended up with a deal. Through the negotiations, the two parties stuck to their talking points with Republicans claiming Biden waited until the last minute to work on a deal and Democrats claiming the Republicans were trying to hold the economy hostage.
After the deal was announced, lawmakers split into three factions that I’ll call hard-liners, conscientious objectors and realists.
The hard-liners were Republicans who said they didn’t think the deal was conservative enough. But any bill conservative enough to satisfy their demands wouldn’t be able to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate or White House, making their hard-line approach somewhat unrealistic.
Some of the belief they could get a more conservative bill was buoyed by a conviction that the country wouldn’t really default on its debt. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, said he didn’t agree with the June 5 date when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen predicted the country would default, because more tax receipts were expected to come in on the 15th.
Even if the country had to prioritize its spending and focus on bondholders until the 15th, Burlison said, he didn’t think it wouldn’t be so bad.
“This place has got to experience a little bit of pain before it changes,” Burlison said.
Then there were the contentious objectors, which mostly consisted of progressive Democrats. This faction thought the deal was so favorable to conservatives that they couldn’t vote for it. Many cited the new work requirements for older recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, though Biden was able to carve out enough people that the Congressional Budget Office predicted the number of people participating in the program would actually increase.
Many of these lawmakers, like Rep. Cori Bush, said they had to vote her conscience when explaining why they wouldn’t support the deal.
But the majority of lawmakers ended up in the realist category. They didn’t necessarily like the deal, but they knew that it was the only option to avoid default. That line of thinking was best summed up in a speech by Sen. Jerry Moran Thursday.
“This is a clash of a bad outcome of default and the bad outcome of more spending,” Moran said.
All of the partisan finger pointing helped provide cover for enough lawmakers to support the deal in a hyper partisan era.
McCarthy was able to say he forced Biden into the best deal he could, enabling Republicans to feel comfortable enough to vote for the bill. Biden’s allies largely stayed silent, an intentional strategy in an effort to make Republicans think they got the better end of the deal while making it seem like Biden was above the fray.
Eventually, the House with 314 votes and two-thirds of the Republican caucus and the support of 17 Republican Senators, even as some of the more conservative and progressive members came out against the deal.
More from Missouri
Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, sponsored his first bill in May after every other new member of the Senate. The target? Administrative regulations. It’s part of a larger goal by Schmitt to move the power of making rules away from the agencies that populate the executive branch and back to a polarized, slow-moving Congress.
Here are headlines from across the state:
From gas stoves to prairie chickens, MO Republican declares a war on federal regulators, Daniel Desrochers
Debt deal will require some older Missourians to work to keep food assistance, Jonathan Shorman and Daniel Desrochers
Republican Mark Alford votes against debt limit deal backed by most KC area reps, Daniel Desrochers
Rule threatening MO library funding over ‘obscene’ books takes effect, Kacen Bayless
Schmitt had no authority to end school mask mandates as Missouri AG, judge rules, Kacen Bayless
And across Kansas
Gun rights activists have had enormous success convincing Kansas lawmakers to adopt some of the most restrictive laws in the country. But recently, gun rights groups have been going after official proclamations passed at the city level that promote awareness of gun violence.
NRA affiliate condemns Johnson County city’s gun violence awareness proclamation, Jonathan Shorman
Former Kansas lawmaker arrested twice while in office running for school board in WyCo, Jonathan Shorman
Overland Park residents say roads are bad. City will fix them — if it can raise taxes, Sarah Ritter
Moran story
Kansas tells people, pets to stay out of an Osawatamie river due to bacteria increase, Andrea Klick
The latest from Kansas City
In Kansas City …
KC mayor says police funding ballot question misled voters. Could lawsuit overturn result?, Kacen Bayless
Sex abuse survivors dreaded priest’s return to KC. They weren’t told he never arrived, Judy Thomas
Kansas City OKs new Plaza project after months of squabbling, Kevin Hardy
Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@kcstar.com
Odds and ends
Student loan vote
While most of the congressional Reporters were chasing around representatives early this week, on Thursday, the Senate voted to reject an order from the Biden administration intended to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for some Americans.
The vote is part of an ongoing effort by Republicans in Congress — aided by Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat — to attempt to disapprove of rules and regulations passed by the Biden administration.
Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can vote to get rid of an executive branch rule, but it has to clear the House, Senate and be signed by the president. Since Biden has veto power, most of the votes are symbolic, allowing members to distance themselves from Biden’s rules.
Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said he voted for the bill because he didn’t think it was fair for the federal government to forgive their debt.
“Transferring over undue debt to the American taxpayers is not only fiscally irresponsible, it’s flat-out wrong,” Marshall said. “This isn’t student loan ‘forgiveness,’ it’s the federal government fleecing hardworking families.”
While the resolution will likely be vetoed if it makes it to Biden’s desk, the U.S. Supreme Court could strike down Biden’s policy later this summer. The court heard a case earlier this term that focused largely on a Missouri’s student loan provider.
Sen. Eric Schmitt joined the case against the Biden administration’s policy with five other states when he was serving as attorney general of Missouri.
Bestseller?
Sen. Josh Hawley’s marketing strategy for his new book, “Manhood,” seems to be pretty simple — claim it’s triggering the liberals in order to drum up sales.
But he made another claim that made me pause: that his book is a bestseller.
I pulled up the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction and it wasn’t on there. I pulled up Amazon’s best seller list for nonfiction and it wasn’t there either.
The closest I could find were rankings in subcategories on Amazon. It’s 24th in print sales in the politics and social sciences section and is 29th in Christian books and bibles. Click on the book’s sales page on Amazon and it says it’s the number one best seller in Christian Men’s Issues.
The book also briefly appeared on the non-fiction bestseller list for Publisher’s Weekly, but had fallen off the list by Thursday.
Chiefs come to Washington
The Kansas City Chiefs will be making the team’s first ever trip to the White House on Monday.
President Joe Biden will host the Super Bowl-winning franchise after they beat his wife’s beloved Philadelphia Eagles in an exciting game (that ended with a whimper).
Typically, these things are mostly pomp and circumstance. Biden welcomes the team in a ceremony in the East Room in front of people important enough to score an invite (often lawmakers will attend. Rep. Ann Wagner said she’s hoping that her schedule lines up so she can make it to the event and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said he’ll be there).
They hand him a jersey, they take a picture and then they all go home.
Now what Biden will do with that jersey, given the circumstances, is another question.
Correction
Last week in the newsletter incorrectly said Jabari Wamble would have been the first person of color on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals if he hadn’t withdrawn his nomination. Wamble would have been the first person of color on the court from Kansas, a distinction the White House made that I missed.
Happy Friday
Here’s an article about Harrison Ford. Happy pride month. Here’s how to make a rainbow cake. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Hawley was elevating a divide in the Catholic Church when claiming the FBI had a bias against Catholics, which had to do with people who still go to Traditional Latin Mass. Well here’s a song by the fabulous Tom Lehrer from the time period when the Vatican stopped using the Latin Mass.
Enjoy your weekend.
Looking for more?
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This story was originally published June 1, 2023 at 11:14 PM.
