Ceiling Dealing

Everyone lost, and everyone won.

President Biden thanked Congress for sending him a debt-ceiling increase with compromises on spending, which he then promptly vetoed because it didn't contain enough funding for Amtrak.  (Just kidding!)

Okay, the deal is done and the country won't default, and now comes the part where pundits on MSNBC are saying that Biden averted the deepest and nastiest cuts to the federal social safety net, pundits on Fox News said that the Republicans in the House got one over on Biden for increasing military spending and relaxing environmental reviews for a long fossil-fuel pipeline, and CNN pundits are saying both things - sometimes the same CNN pundit is saying both things, mindful of CNN honcho Chris Licht's laughable strategy of being all things to all people.  (Michael Smerconish preferred not to talk about the debt ceiling increase at all on his CNN Saturday show yesterday morning, preferring instead to discuss Pride Month.)  

The President thanked Speaker Kevin McCarthy for his strong leadership - I can't believe I just typed that - and McCarthy was genuinely relaxed and happy about having mastered the art of dealmaking and being in complete control of the process (I can't believe I just typed that, either!).  Now there's new hope for biparistan ship on similar big issues . . . at least until immigration is brought up again.

The good news is that Washington politicians will look for bipartisanship where they can. The bad news is that some of the most obvious policy positions in Congress - like ignoring Amtrak - are bipartisan.