McConnell straddles the middle in yet another debt ceiling standoff
Mitch McConnell returns to the White House on Friday for the rare second visit within a week to help pave the way for a bipartisan agreement that raises the nation’s debt ceiling in exchange for Republican-sought domestic spending cuts.
Thus far, the Senate Republican leader has played the part of steady-handed middle-man – earning praise from President Joe Biden for his inclination toward a resolution, but also sticking close to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is under immense pressure to extract concessions from the White House.
Friday’s meeting between the top four congressional leaders and the president takes on greater urgency, marking just 20 calendar days until June 1, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the U.S. might run out of money without an extension of borrowing.
For weeks, McConnell has left the bargaining chips to McCarthy, who presides over a slim majority that includes a rebellious conservative faction with the power to tank any deal. McConnell has simultaneously pressured Biden to come to the table and chastised him for refusing to compromise on spending cuts.
While the White House has taken any talk of repealing Biden’s signature legislative accomplishment – the Inflation Reduction Act – off the table, there have been conversations this week about other categories of potential spending cuts.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who has notably fingered McCarthy – and not McConnell – for driving “the country towards disaster,” conceded this week that there are probably “some places we can compromise” in the budget and appropriations process.
After their last meeting on Tuesday, McConnell echoed his previous statements and those of the president in declaring the U.S. would not default.
“It never has and it never will,” McConnell said outside the White House.
But the Kentuckian also added that there were not the votes in the evenly divided Senate for a clean debt ceiling without spending concessions.
“Certainly not 60 votes,” he quipped. “So there must be an agreement. And the sooner the president and the speaker can reach an agreement, the sooner we can solve the problem.”
On the Senate floor, McConnell praised McCarthy for shepherding through “the only legislation currently in existence that prevents default,” in a nail-biter 217-215 vote on April 26.
But that bill is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate and would be vetoed by the president since it includes the repeal of $500 million in tax credits for clean energy production and consumer rebates.
That means Friday’s White House meeting is being set before a blank sheet of paper with a deal that’s yet to be drawn.
”I hope President Biden has begun to wake up,” McConnell said. “The White House has to stop sleepwalking towards default and reach a spending deal with the Speaker.”
McConnell has noted that seven of the last 10 debt ceiling hikes have come with some type of bipartisan deal on spending.
But he has been careful not to pinpoint any particular areas he would advocate for cuts, leaving the specifics to McCarthy, which some analysts argue demonstrates the conundrum.
“If it was just a question of reaching a bipartisan agreement, Senate Republicans and Democrats could probably get it done and we would be looking to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for positive signals,” wrote Jonathan Bernstein, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. “But McConnell isn’t going to broker a deal that the House might defeat – or that McCarthy might not even bring to a vote.”
But if the country slips into late May without a deal, some analysts believe McConnell will be looked upon to take a more assertive role.
He had to a dozen years ago, when debt ceiling negotiations flamed out between former President Barack Obama and then-House Speaker John Boehner.
At that moment in 2011, many feared the nation was lumbering towards default.
But McConnell was able to piece together his GOP caucus to support a deal to avert a shutdown and avoid blame heading into a 2012 presidential cycle.
McConnell’s caucus is different now, with more conservative hardliners willing to torpedo an agreement they view as fiscally imprudent. And he has little to no control over what McCarthy’s 222-member caucus does.
One saving note from history: In the 2011 episode, the two men who were at the center of the affirming deal were McConnell and then-Vice President Biden.
This story was originally published May 12, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
