Debt-ceiling talks between White House, Senate break up with no progress

[jimmy olsen]

This is a hell of their own making. If they were rational this would be extended automatically.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01/debt-ceiling-talks-between-white-house-senate-break-up-with-no-progress/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.4f4bdff130d4

Debt-ceiling talks between White House, Senate break up with no progress

By Damian Paletta August 1 at 12:30 PM

Talks between the White House and the Senate's top Republican and Democrat broke up Tuesday with no progress on raising the country's debt ceiling, an impasse that threatens a financial crisis if left unresolved.

The Senate and House have 12 joint working days before Sept. 29, when the Treasury Department says it would no longer be able to pay all of the government's bills unless Congress acts. A default would likely set off a major disruption to the world financial system, with a stock market crash and surging interest rates that could send the economy into a recession.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has urged Congress for months to raise the debt limit, but the White House has lacked a unified message and run into resistance on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans are at odds on key tax and spending issues.

Mnuchin met Tuesday morning with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), searching for ways to raise the debt ceiling, but the gathering ended without any progress — or even a clear sense of what the lawmakers need to deliver votes to raise the limit, according to three people briefed on the meeting who insisted on anonymity to speak candidly about the private discussions.


Several hours after the meeting, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders implored Congress to act, illustrating how serious the Trump administration now believes this issue to be.

"To ensure that we have robust economic growth and promote fiscal discipline, the Trump administration believes it's important to raise the debt ceiling as soon as possible," she said at her daily press briefing. "Over the past two decades, members of Congress and presidents from both parties have raised debt ceiling 15 time and we look forward to working with Congress to ensure the full faith and credit of the United States government."

But lawmakers so far have shown little sign of engaging. The House of Representatives has already left town and will not return until after Labor Day.

The U.S. government spends more money than it brings in through revenue, creating an annual deficit. The Treasury Department borrows money to cover that gap by issuing debt, and it has always paid back the bondholders on time. According to one measurement, the government now has close to $20 trillion in debt.


Congress has established a cap on the amount of money the government can borrow, and Mnuchin has told Congress that this cap must be raised by Sept. 29 to ensure that the government can continue paying all of its bills.

Republicans often resist efforts to raise the debt ceiling, making GOP leaders rely on Democrats to help them get enough votes to pass the bill. But substantive talks on how to raise the debt ceiling have not yet begun, and the breakdown at the Mnuchin meeting on Tuesday suggests a vote on the measure could come down to the wire late next month.

A number of Republicans, and even some within the White House, have suggested that there should be spending cuts that accompany any agreement to raise the debt ceiling, a condition that many Democrats have said they will not accept. Democrats, meanwhile, have also signaled they will not agree to raise the debt ceiling if Republicans plan to then add trillions of dollars in debt through a large tax-cut package.

President Barack Obama's administration and Congress almost failed in their efforts to raise the debt ceiling in 2011, and the uncertainty roiled financial markets. They ultimately agreed to a series of budget caps and other changes in exchange for raising the borrowing limit, but the Obama administration later adopted a position that it would not negotiate any future changes to the debt ceiling.


President Trump's administration has not had to raise the debt ceiling yet, and Trump has ridiculed Republicans in the past for agreeing to lift the borrowing limits when Obama was in office.

-- David Nakamura contributed to this report.

[CountDeMoney]

The Senate and House have 12 joint working days before Sept. 29, when the Treasury Department says it would no longer be able to pay all of the government's bills unless Congress acts.

I spy:  a mega shutdown!

  We can't take Seedy's healthcare?  Fuck it, let's just make sure he can't pay for it! 

[Monoriu]

This is borderline crazy.  The US defaulting on its obligations is no joke.  There are other ways to have a rational discussion on fiscal policy. 

[viper37]

There are other ways to have a rational discussion on fiscal policy. 

sure.  I'm sure President Trump will come up with a rational plan to discuss fiscal policy.  Anytime now.

[CountDeMoney]

There are other ways to have a rational discussion on fiscal policy. 

sure.  I'm sure President Trump will come up with a rational plan to discuss fiscal policy.  Anytime now.

"The appropriations, the spending process, Congress using the power of the purse has been broken here in Washington for more than 10 years. And I think a good shutdown would be one that could help fix that. It's part of that overall drain-the-swamp mentality about Washington, D.C. This president is willing to think outside the box and do things differently around here in order to change Washington. And if that comes to a shutdown in September, so be it."
--Mick Mulvaney, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Face The Nation, 5/7/17

Ahhhhhyup. Anytime now.

[jimmy olsen]

This is borderline crazy.  The US defaulting on its obligations is no joke.  There are other ways to have a rational discussion on fiscal policy.

"Submitted for your consideration: A carnival barker standing on the crossroads of America and History, peddling a spectacle of hate and fear. His rubes: the American people. So drawn in are they by his words that they don't comprehend the carnival of horrors they are about to witness. This salesman's name: Donald Trump. Watch as he ushers them through the tent flaps and into: the Twilight Zone."

https://youtu.be/XVSRm80WzZk

[CountDeMoney]

Shut up.

[11B4V]

The Senate and House have 12 joint working days before Sept. 29, when the Treasury Department says it would no longer be able to pay all of the government's bills unless Congress acts.

I spy:  a mega shutdown!

  We can't take Seedy's healthcare?  Fuck it, let's just make sure he can't pay for it! 

Nope won't happen.

[garbon]

Seems like this debt ceiling is pretty silly if we always raise it / allows grandstanding for the gov't to be brought to its knees.

[The Minsky Moment]

"The appropriations, the spending process, Congress using the power of the purse has been broken here in Washington for more than 10 years. And I think a good shutdown would be one that could help fix that. It's part of that overall drain-the-swamp mentality about Washington, D.C. This president is willing to think outside the box and do things differently around here in order to change Washington. And if that comes to a shutdown in September, so be it."
--Mick Mulvaney, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Face The Nation, 5/7/17

Ahhhhhyup. Anytime now.

What good is Homeland Security if they let a terrorist set up shop at OMB?

[The Minsky Moment]

Seems like this debt ceiling is pretty silly if we always raise it / allows grandstanding for the gov't to be brought to its knees.

We've always had some semblance of a functioning government before, a condition not present now.  This Congress hasn't been able to pass jack aside from a couple "Hooray for America" weeks. The Freedom Fries Caucus is waiting to stick their crazy conditions on any ceiling raise - cutting spending 50%, culls of poor people, replacing the Statue of Liberty's head with Ayn Rand.   Treasury is still running short-staffed, and Trump's budget chief is openly rooting for default.

Mnuchin seems to get it - if for no other reason to keep the world safe for plutocracy - but he's not exactly high energy in this crowd.

[The Brain]

America is the sick man of... er... America.

[Eddie Teach]

Hey we have less murders than El Salvador and we're skinnier than Mexico.

[mongers]

Posted in wrong thread. 

[Eddie Teach]

See Tim, all this thread spamming has poor Mongers confused.