Hitting The Ceiling

Well, the debt ceiling has been temporarily raised through early December, so a crisis has been avoided . . . for now. And the anger Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer showed toward Senate Republicans for delaying it for as long as they did was all too obvious.

After Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell allowed the vote on the debt ceiling to go through, Schumer excoriated the GOP for letting the crisis go so far.  It was the right speech at the wrong time.  It was too sensitive a moment for such a speech.  All he did was anger McConnell and made him much less likely to step in when the debt ceiling needs to be raised again.  Jesus didn't weep.  But Joe Manchin did.

"Poisoning the well" is too mild a metaphor for what just went down this past week.

The Democrats will likely have to raise the debt ceiling through reconciliation, which will mean that they will have to set a specific number that the Republicans will force them to defend in a midterm election campaign that will focus on too much government spending.  This may be a neutral issue if the Democrats can pass President Biden's "Build Back Better" program - but that's a big "if" . . . and time is running out.

And a continuing resolution has to be passed to fund the government at the same time the debt ceiling has to be raised again.

I'm not optimistic.