The Obama-Biden White House has agreed. To negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling. It has brought the US economy to the brink of collapse – and the president. And vice president have vowed to reverse their stance.
WASHINGTON — In 2011, after the failure. Of debt ceiling negotiations with House Republicans brought. The United States to the brink of economic collapse. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat. On their top aides’ sofas by the Oval Office fireplace. Although relieved to avoid disaster, they were shocked by what happened.
Obama and Biden made a vow: never again.
They agreed that going forward. “One cannot use the threat of default or not raising the debt ceiling as a negotiating tool.” Said a former Obama official involved in the fiscal negotiations. Who described the Oval Office meeting and the “lessons of 2011.” . ” they all discuss. “It keeps you on your stomach. You can’t believe you’re in this situation,” the official said.
The United States has suffered its first credit downgrade. The markets were crowded. Consumer and business confidence has collapsed. Stocks take a hit. And the recovery from the Great Depression was questionable. Democrats avoided the cliff — the GOP demanded $2 trillion in spending cuts. After the collapse of the “grand bargain” — but Obama. And Biden agreed that the mere threat of default had done serious damage. “They said: This is a sad lesson we’ve learned,” the Obama official said, describing the mood in the room. “It was an unimaginable self-inflicted wound in 2011.”
Twelve years later, Biden is applying that lesson. As he faces a new Republican-controlled House. That is similarly demanding spending cuts as concessions to raising the debt ceiling. He said there would be no negotiations and Congress must let the government pay its bills. “I will not allow anyone to use the full faith and credit of the United States. As a bargaining chip,” Biden said Thursday in Virginia.
His stance drew a rebuke from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. R-Calif., who said he was “disappointed.” But stood by his call for spending cuts. As in 2011, the GOP speaker commands. A House majority filled with ideologically driven conservatives. Who want to use the debt ceiling to push for budget changes in the Democratic-led Senate and White House. Mage says irresponsibly, ‘No, no, no, just raise the limit, make us spend more.’ No adults act this way,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol last week. “Let’s find common ground, and end wasteful spending to protect hard-working taxpayers.
“So the longer he waits, the more he can take over America’s financial woes.”
The standoff comes before what the Treasury said is a June 5. Deadline for Biden and Republicans to act or risk default. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are backing Biden and demanding. That McCarthy present his plan and pass it through the House before there is any debate. It took the debate on a different path than in 2011. When Obama tried to strike a budget deal. With Republicans in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Which failed several times and brought the US within days of default. It is not clear how this will end.
David Schnitger, who served as deputy chief of staff to. Then-Speaker John Boehner, recalled that in 2011. House Republicans could get enough votes behind their inaugural bid. To force the White House to come to the table: a balanced budget amendment to the debt ceiling.
“It’s possible that we’ll finally see House Republicans put forth. A plan to deal with both the debt ceiling and spending issues. “That’s what the House GOP majority did in 2011 with the ‘cuts. Caps and balances’ proposal,” Schnitger said in an email. He argued that the legislation would need Congress to raise the debt limit instead. Of raising it automatically, “deliberating on budget policy when the debt piles up.” – or to compel negotiations” exist.
It’s unclear whether McCarthy can muster the 218 Republican. Votes for a bill of his own in his narrow House majority. And, so far, there is no unified plan for what Republicans want to cut spending. After 2011, the Obama White House drew a hard line when the debt ceiling came up again in early 2013. Then-White House spokesman Jay Carney said in January of that year. “Congress can pay its bill or fail to do so and plunge the nation into default.”
House Republicans balked, calling for passage of a budget. That ties debt limit expansion to a symbolic measure.
In that vein, Congress, under a GOP-led House. Extended the debt ceiling three more times — in October 2013. February 2014 and November 2015 — either as a symbolic add. On or a bipartisan budget that both parties agreed to.
