DEFAULT WEEK - STEP 1

Breaking news - from “Roll Call”:

“Bipartisan legislation to suspend the debt limit until after the 2024 elections cleared its first critical hurdle Tuesday night, when the House Rules Committee backed the terms for floor debate that is scheduled for Wednesday.

“Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden, who negotiated the package, appear likely to have the votes to pass the measure, despite rising anger from the GOP majority’s hard-right flank and some concerns on the left as well.

“First, party leaders need to adopt the rule on the floor — a key test of how far conservative holdouts are willing to go to sink the bill. Since rule votes are typically along party lines, enough GOP defections could cause leadership to have to go back to the drawing board.

“The Rules Committee has nine Republicans and four Democrats, but three of the GOP members are fiscal conservatives who could have derailed the entire process even before the rule hit the floor if they stuck together and voted against it in committee. One of the three, however, backed the rule during the panel's meeting Tuesday.

“I anticipate voting for this rule,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said earlier in the Rules meeting. Massie won inclusion of his proposal to automatically cut current spending by 1 percent if full-year spending bills haven't been enacted by Jan. 1, 2024; backers say that's a major incentive for lawmakers to complete the appropriations process by then.

“Defections from all three of the panel's conservatives who won Rules seats earlier this year — Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina are the other two — would have been enough to tank the Republican-backed rule in committee if all Democrats voted against it as would be typical.

“Roy and Norman voted against the rule, which the committee approved on a 7-6 vote, with all Democrats opposed. Under the terms of the rule, no amendments to the bill would be allowed during floor debate.”

So, what does this all mean?

The fact that Massie didn’t go down with the ship along with Chip Roy and Ralph Norman means that the Fwee-dumb Caucus is split and doesn’t have the power to do more than have the True Believers jump up and down, shouting while they fling their feces at the rest of the House. This was obvious yesterday when Marjorie Traitor Goon demonstrated she wants to keep her alliance with McCarthy that was formed when she supported his bid for Speaker; it turns out, she likes power and being on the “inside” as much as anyone else. Jim Jordan also announced his support last night.

Where things go from this:

Tomorrow, the full House will vote to accept the Rule that was passed tonight. This will show exactly where things are at in the House.

I find myself surprised to be in agreement with Fraternity Freddie, er, I mean Matt Gaetz, but he didn’t get where he is without being able to add 2+2 and get 4 on consecutive tries. Gaetz predicted that McCarthy will have 140-160 members of the Republican caucus in support, that Democrats will supply 60-80, perhaps as many as 100 of necessary, supportive votes, that the bill will then “rocket” through the Senate and be quickly signed by President Biden. He also stated his belief that McCarthy’s speakership is safe because “there is no credible opposition.”

Democrats need to keep their eyes on the prize and remember what Biden said yesterday: that the reason he remained quiet about the deal was because saying he thought it was good would not get it through the House. Biden just out-foxed the Republicans, and they all know they got defeated.

They know they have no chance of playing this game again, because the debt limit was raised until January 2025. There will be 12 bills submitted by “regular procedure” for the budget votes this fall, and if the Republicans do not support them, the government will not shut down because the deal includes a Continuing Resolution that maintains spending at the levels that were negotiated here. Biden really did negotiate a budget.

The Republicans were unable to go after the American Rescue Plan or the Inflation Reduction Act, they only knocked off $1.8 billion of planned spending for the IRS between now and 2025; they were not able to stop the student loan debt relief program.

“Progressive” Democrats who have been saying Biden isn’t good enough at presidentin’ to be re-elected need to go take a second look at the tapes and learn how the game is actually played.

Biden won. If you doubt that, go listen to the right wingers screams today.

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