President Joe Biden eats an ice cream cone at a Baskin-Robbins in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Carolyn Kaster/AP

Biden’s debt limit fantasy isn’t sustainable in reality

Washington Examiner May 01, 12:01 AM May 01, 12:01 AM Video Embed

Despite his advanced age of 82, President Joe Biden’s closest advisers insist that “he’s mentally sharp,” and that may be true on most things. But when it comes to the impending limit on the federal government’s authority to borrow money, Biden is lost in fantasy land, and he needs to join Republicans back in reality before the economy gets hurt.

His original plan had a simplicity to it that was founded on recent history. After spending the last two years adding $5 trillion to the national debt through executive actions and two entirely partisan reconciliation bills, either of which could have included a debt limit hike, Biden intends to stick House Republicans with the bill, forcing them to pass what Democratic messaging calls a “clean” debt limit hike that would fracture the caucus and severely weaken new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

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McCarthy’s two predecessors, former GOP Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, had both failed to unify House Republicans around debt limit legislation during their tenures. Both had to be bailed out by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and President Donald Trump, respectively. Assuming that McCarthy, too, would fail to get a debt limit offer through the House with just Republican votes was a safe bet from Biden’s perspective.

But this Wednesday, McCarthy stunned the White House by succeeding where his predecessors had failed. By a 217-215 vote, House Republicans passed their Limit, Save, Grow Act, which paired a raise in the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority with much-needed permitting reform, a cancellation of Biden’s illegal college debt amnesty, and modest reforms to the food stamp and Medicaid programs.

This vote changed everything. As Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said, “While I do not agree with everything proposed, the fact of the matter is that it is the only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default.”

And that is exactly what the Limit, Save, Grow Act is: “the only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default.” McCarthy has shown that the votes for Biden’s “clean” hike, which is really a dirty hike intended to trap political opponents rather than work with them, don’t exist in the House. Given Manchin’s support for the substance of McCarthy’s bill, it isn’t clear Biden even has 50 votes, let alone 60, in the Senate, either.

Biden has so far proven incapable of processing the new reality. “I’m happy to meet with McCarthy,” he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, “but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended. That’s not negotiable.”

This is fantasy. Everyone knows that if Biden meets with McCarthy, which he will, they will negotiate terms. There is no other reason for them to meet.

More importantly, it is reasonable for Biden and McCarthy to negotiate significant policy changes on federal borrowing authority. Instead of governing from the center after achieving narrow control of the Senate, Biden chose to take the country in a radical leftist direction, spending recklessly and causing the worst inflation in a generation.

Voters sent Biden a message that they did not want his radical agenda. This was the import of their decision to give Republicans control of the House. The federal government reaching the limit of its legal borrowing authority is a reasonable time to reconsider if the nation is on the proper fiscal path.

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Instead of looking at debt limit negotiations as a problem, Biden should regard them as an opportunity. Smart Democrats know the federal government’s permitting process must change for America to build the energy infrastructure needed to meet Biden’s carbon reduction plans. The president could use the cover of this debt limit vote to pass the permitting reform the Democratic Party base would otherwise reject.

It is hard to think of a better way for Biden to boost his reelection campaign than by securing a huge bipartisan win on the debt limit and permitting reform.

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