Biden Embraces Hysteria In Debt Ceiling Negotiations

Few things focus the mind of a politician more than a deadline. It's been a fuzzy idea in the current beltway discussion over the debt ceiling. But now, it looks like the best guess is Uncle Sam will run out of money on or near June 1.

In a letter to House Speaker Kevin  McCarthy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said:

After reviewing recent federal tax receipts, our best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government's obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time. This estimate is based on currently available data, as federal receipts and outlays are inherently variable, and the actual date that Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures could be a number of weeks later than these estimates.

It is impossible to predict with certainty the exact date when Treasury will be unable to pay the government's bills, and I will continue to update Congress in the coming weeks as more information becomes available.

That means Republicans and Democrats have very little time to decide what they will do and how it will be done.

But first, the actually have to agree to meet in the same room and start talking. But even as President Joe Biden issued an invitation to House leaders to come on down for a chat, he lapsed into hysteria:

…Biden…again slammed House Republicans for their legislation, saying “their extreme MAGA plan would cut critical funding for education, public safety, including cut 60,000 public schoolteachers, take health care and food assistance away from millions of working families.” The president also blamed Trump and his predecessors for incurring “200 years of debt,” adding: “We're not paying for what we're spending right now.”

As I've written before, the Republican proposal is hardly the Republic-wrecking doomsmanship the White House and its allies are peddling. It absolutely refuses to address the largest line items in the federal budget – Social Security and Medicare. And to get the votes he needed to pass his budget proposal, McCarthy had to protect the economically and environmentally destructive biofuel subsidies Iowa Republicans demanded.

But Biden and his allies hope no one notices that the main driver in the House GOP plan is rolling back discretionary spending to 2022 levels – levels that were in force at the beginning of this year and that Biden signed into law himself.

Who knew the president was unleashing a hellscape of despair on the land when he did such a horrible thing?

Sarcasm aside…Mr. Biden does touch on one truth: government is spending more money than it has on hand. In his budget proposal, Mr. Biden offered a series of tax increases that no Republicans – and even quite a few moderate Democrats – would never approve.

But that's his opening bid, just as House Republicans have made there's. The point is to stop hissing at one another and start the hard, serious, essential work of getting a deal done.

And the clock is officially ticking toward June 1, when the cash likely runs out.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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