Taking A Meeting
Last week, the Republicans in the House passed a debt ceiling increase that called for spending cuts. Then came a busy day yesterday as the Democrats provided their formal and organized response.
First, the Senate Majority Leader started calling the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” by a new name, the “Default on America Act”—the acronym being “DOA”, suggesting the chance of Senate passage. Pretty bold move from the folks who gave us the uniquely named “Inflation Reduction Act”…and from a Senator who cannot count on 50 votes against the House bill. There are only 48 Democrats, and one is out ill…so he has to keep his caucus intact and snare all three Independents.
Second, the Treasury Secretary sent a letter to Congress saying all of a sudden the U.S. could hit the current debt ceiling by June 1, only a month away, and sooner than had been forecast.
That led to the third move, the President asking to meet…calling for the GOP and Democrat leaders of both the House and Senate to come to the White House a week from today, May 9.
If you think those three moves were merely coincidental, think again.
You may say that there’s still a month to get this done…but don’t forget the Memorial Day holiday at the end of the month…and the fact that current Congressional calendars show there are only eight legislative days this month when both the House and Senate will be in session at the same time. That cuts the window of opportunity down even further.
Democrats were counting on the GOP House to fail to pass anything, given their propensity to fall apart when it’s time to build a coalition. When that didn’t happen, the White House talked tough…and when public sentiment seemed to be on the side actually passing something, the Democrats took a different tact.
Now, if only the tact everyone would take is resolving the problem they caused…then we’d really be on to something.
