OPINION:
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s announcement that the U.S. government could run out of money by early June starts the next phase of the debt ceiling dance.
The score at this point is House Republicans 316, President Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer zero.
The 316 is the number of pages in the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which House Republicans passed by 217-215 on April 26. That act cuts $4.8 trillion in spending and raises the debt ceiling so there will be no risk of default.
The zero is the number of pages in bills proposed by Mr. Biden and Mr. Schumer, the Senate majority leader. Since there is no Democratic bill to stop the United States from going into default, there has been no vote in the Senate on a Schumer-Biden proposal.
In fact, as a sign that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s strategy is beginning to pay off, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said: “If you look at the House, what they accomplished was a surprise to everyone given the various factions. Their having achieved an outcome — it should be clear to the administration that the Senate is not a relevant player this time.”
According to Punchbowl News:
“I think McConnell’s analysis is right,” said Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, a frequent critic of Mr. McConnell. “I don’t always agree with him. But on this, I think his analysis is right.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican, replied that the House “got something done. Let’s let them sell it to the president and then let them work out a deal. There’s nothing we can do other than talk about it, brag about it or complain about it. I’m like Leader McConnell — let’s just stay out of it and let them do it. We should have no say because we had no skin in the game.”
“Whatever Kevin McCarthy comes to with the president, that’s great. We’ll be there to support the speaker,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican. “’[McCarthy] can take a real strong lead here. We don’t want serious fractures happening in the House.’”
This is an unprecedented level of Senate Republican support for a House initiative. It is a further sign of the goodwill and team spirit Mr. McCarthy has developed with Senate Republicans in general and Mr. McConnell in particular.
Faced with a united Republican team, Mr. Biden called Mr. McCarthy while the speaker was leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel and suggested they meet on the debt ceiling.
We will learn from that meeting if Mr. Biden is beginning to confront reality.
Mr. Biden’s demand for an unamended debt ceiling increase that would allow spending, borrowing and taxing to continue unchanged has been soundly rejected by the American people. As the Winston Group reported in a “Winning the Issues” brief, only 14% of voters favor a debt ceiling with no spending cuts. Even among Democrats, only 21% favor Mr. Biden’s position, while among independents that support drops to an eye-opening 13%. That’s a pretty narrow base on which to build a reelection campaign.
Thanks to Mr. McCarthy’s strategic leadership in the House (which spent months developing a debt ceiling spending cut bill that the House Republican Conference could pass despite their narrow majority) and to Mr. McConnell’s generous decision to support his colleague’s success, congressional Republicans are entering the negotiations with Mr. Biden in a remarkably strong position.
The Biden unreformed debt ceiling increase is supported by 14%, according to the Winston Group. That means 86% of the American people want a different solution than Mr. Biden’s. Mr. Schumer cannot get anything through the Senate as long as Senate Republicans remain firmly in support of their House colleagues.
If Republicans can build a disciplined message that they have already passed the bill to avoid a default, the business community will begin building pressure on Mr. Biden to move to Mr. McCarthy’s position.
The next few weeks are going to be fascinating.
• For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com.
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