Ezra Klein essentially lays out Biden’s position on the debt ceiling negotiations in today’s NYT. It’s too risky to use the Fourteenth Amendment. You would be banking on Roberts, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, and who knows what they would do? Better to negotiate and hope for the best.
The problem with this approach is that, for the reasons I have described in several previous posts, no reasonable compromise can be reached without putting McCarthy’s gavel in jeopardy. Either the negotiations will fail, because a large faction of House Republicans won’t support the deal, or McCarthy will have to rely on Democratic votes to keep his job, which will be very uncomfortable for him.
Klein doesn’t trust the Supreme Court. I get that. But will you get a fairer hearing from the Freedom Caucus? Do you trust McCarthy and Matt Gaetz more than John Roberts?
I certainly don’t. In the real world, Biden will have to hope and pray that the pressure to settle will peel off a handful of GOP votes just before we hit the wall. If that doesn’t work, it is surrender, chaos, or the Fourteenth Amendment.
Note to my readers: I will be on vacation until Friday. Regular posts will resume either late Friday or Saturday.