Posted on 09/12/2017 9:15:20 PM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said Congress will not have to vote to raise the nation's borrowing limit until some time in 2018 thanks to the Treasury Department's flexibility in handling the debt ceiling once it is reinstated in December.
"We will not be revisiting the debt ceiling until next year," said McConnell, R-Ky.
The move undercuts Democrats who hoped to trade their votes this year for a debt ceiling increase in return for a vote to secure passage of so-called Dreamer legislation that would protect illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.
The debt ceiling was suspended for three months, until Dec. 8, under a deal proposed by Democrats and endorsed by President Trump, who was eager to avert a spending standoff ahead of two weather disasters caused by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. The deal also included a three-month extension of government funding.
McConnell said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin would be able to use "extraordinary measures" to stay under the debt ceiling until sometime next year.
McConnell indicated that his goal in delaying a vote on the debt ceiling is to separate it from the 2018 spending package, which still faces a December deadline.
"The assumption by my counterparts [Democrats] is they would continue to have linkage between the debt ceiling and how we hope to resolve government spending in December," McConnell said. "I crafted the amendment and offered it to the flood bill and it does not eliminate extraordinary measures, which the Secretary of the Treasury has always had in connection to the debt ceiling and therefore I can confidently predict there will not be a connection with the debt ceiling and spending decisions in December. It doesn't mean we won't have to address the debt ceiling at some point..."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Ditch is the totally lame can kicker.
Tell Ditch to pass a Budget and cut spending.
He’s a doofus.
That's my take as well.
McConnell is punting actual work until after Christmas so the fat beltway pigs can enjoy another holiday vacation.
Mitch has been in the senate since 1985. We’ve seen out national debt rise to over $20 trillion. He’s part of the problem.
He has never accomplished anything outside of his political career. He’s studied political science in college and because a lawyer that ran for the senate. He got in office because of some cute political campaigns. He’s a fraud. He’s certainly not a statesman. No real accomplishments other than riding in on Reagan’s coattails. He’s one of the kingpins of the GOPe.
i think it is good.
raising the debt is bad but stopping it is probably not an immediate priority since it has been going on for decades and slipping causes only minor incremental damage relative to what has already occurred.
imho the democrats have more to lose by failing to cause a showdown. they want a debt ceiling showdown to gaslight trump’s alleged lack of compassion and alleged incompetence. by waiting until after the disasters are funded, trump chooses the economic terrain on which to fight a debt ceiling battle. so, potential advantage: trump
to my admittedly limited understanding, raising the debt ceiling is actually a regressive inflation tax that also has a side effect of profiting big banking (federal reserve). issuing US notes instead of FR notes to cover federal debt would bypass the FR but possibly cause the powers that be to get very nasty about ending trump’s term prematurely. i rather doubt the subject has not been broached within the WH at some level and hopefully precautions have been taken. longer term, perhaps trump can work to cut entitlements which is the only way to reduce the effective regressive inflation tax. however, he probably can’t cut entitlements until he can claim some other major win, most notably, getting tax reform through congress. stalling tax reform protects democrat entitlement constituents.
anyway, eliminating the deficit (stabilizing the debt and removing the need to increase the debt ceiling periodically) is an abstraction that perhaps few constituents on the left or right understand, so it probably takes a lower priority...
LoL.
This is not how Swamp Turtle and Ryan originally planned to handle this. I am guessing it is probably not as bad as what the GOPe wanted to do.
“”Extraordinary measures” to stay under the debt limit might just be what the President wants, like cutting federal employees, etc.”
That’s right. I care a lot more about cutting the amount of money they have to waste than having a balanced budget.
Ole Schmuckie just got his, uh junk, handed back to him on holding the Senate hostage over a government shutdown on amnesty!
Road Runner just punted past Wiley Coyote!
If I were Trump, I’d refuse to sign anything longer than a three month CR.
Then I’d tell Congress to get off it’s collective ass unless it wanted all out war.
Then I’d go on the television, and I’d tell the American people I had given Congress a full year to address tax cuts and fix our health insurance problems. “I’m sorry, but I can’t wait any longer. Our economy can pick up and fund what we need to do, but the Republican controlled Congress has refused to do the nation’s work.”
I’d ask them to call Representative Ryan and Mitch McConnell and ask them why they are two of the biggest obstructionists in the history of our Nation.
Then I’d refuse to sign anything until a finished tax bill I approved of was resting on my desk.
I would send my Vice President to Capital Hill and keep the Senate in Session until something was knocked out.
They just reported record tax revenues. “Raising” an insanely-high debt ceiling is beyond irresponsible. We need to stop paying taxes and shut this thing down until they actually do their jobs: sustainable budget management.
If the GOPe don’t deliver funding for the wall, repeal/replace on O care and tax reform, they will face dire consequences.
Your limited understanding goes way beyond my understanding and most likely many others. That was the most insightful post I have read in the last few months - nice job
Another political fact based on history.
Whichever party digs in its heels and causes a Govt shutdown loses big time politically.
What shutdown? A GOP passes a law that is supported by the President and its win-win. What McConnell is actually saying is that he is unable or unwilling to force the hateful anti-Trumpers like McCain, Collins and Murkowski to pass the GOP legislation. This has zero to do with the Democrats or Trump. The MAGA agenda is held hostage by a handful of malcontents and McConnell is giving them a free pass.
You seem to find Mitch McConnell exciting. That’s interesting.
Nope no “cuts”, Treasury Dept. just stops funding federal pension funds, etc. until the ceiling is raised then the national debt jumps by 140 billion or so in one day. So “unfunded mandates” just get higher during the “extraordinary measures” period. Mnuchen just used them last March: https://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/Documents/DL_Letter_20170316_Ryan.pdf
Interest on the nation debt is approaching 10% of the budget ($320 billion or so), and that is at artificially low interest rates (Fed manipulation):
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget_interest
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