🪿

We got a preview of this during McCarthy’s disaster of Speaker vote in January. He doesn’t know how many votes he has on what. That’s what makes this “negotiating” rudderless.

How do you deal with someone who cannot deliver passage? Clean bill needs 5. He can’t pass without Dems

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 17, 2023

To be clear, AOC is talking about a debt limit increase bill that will pass both houses (the one the House passed is DOA in the Senate).  I’ve always thought this was true: a few Republicans joining the Democrats would get a clean bill through. Provided there are 5 House Republicans who don’t want to crash the economy in the name of owning the libs.

Which still remains to be seen. In the meantime, AOC’s Twitter feed is kinda fun:

John Fetterman just asked the Silicon Valley Bank CEO if there should be work requirements for CEOs who crash banks and dear reader, I almost fell out of my chair.

— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) May 16, 2023

👀 Sen. Angus King, a fiscal hawk, says Biden should consider raising debt limit with 14A.

“I think there's some very strong legal arguments. The 14th amendment is pretty explicit” about president enforcing spending laws

Says it’d be “a good thing” to nuke debt limit forever

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) May 17, 2023

Taking that issue to court without a debt ceiling increase would be disastrous, because the authority issue would not be answered, the actions of the Treasury would be suspect.This whole affair rests on confidence.

But after a debt ceiling increase? Biden should take the steps necessary to prompt a challenge, probably from the House GOP. The Congress won’t end this foolishness; let the Constitution do it.

And can we impose work requirements on bank presidents whose banks get bailed out? Sauce for the goose, and all.