Biden gets involved on debt ceiling strategy with call to Pelosi, Schumer

[FBaggins]

President Joe Biden discussed the possibility of raising the debt ceiling via budget reconciliation on Monday evening on a telephone call with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the latest sign that Democrats are searching for a way around entrenched GOP opposition.

No final decision was made on the call, according to two Democrats familiar with the conversation. Senate Republicans on Monday evening blocked Biden and congressional leaders’ plan to raise the debt ceiling through the midterms and fund the government into December, leaving Democrats fuming and searching for a way to avoid a shutdown on Friday and a default in October.

Schumer has been walking his caucus through how cumbersome the process of using the arcane budget reconciliation process to raise the debt ceiling could be and the many pitfalls ahead if leaders choose to follow that route. Schumer has warned his caucus that the gambit would be “burdensome and untenable,” according to one of the Democrats.

Senate Democrats also might need to cancel a mid-October recess to raise the debt ceiling on their own via reconciliation, which allows the party to avoid a GOP filibuster but would require negotiations with the parliamentarian and some degree of cooperation from Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confidently predicted that Democrats will raise the debt ceiling “because we always do,” though typically both parties support an increase.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/28/biden-debt-ceiling-strategy-514469

I don't know what negotiations with the parliamentarian the author is considering.

[PortTack]

1. With limited reconciliation bills, won't this squash the infrastructure bill?

It’s the gqp way..a..holes!

[FBaggins]

2. Nope

Reconciliation can be used once per fiscal year for each of three budget categories (spending, taxing, debt ceiling).

Very often, all three exist in a single bill... but they don't have to be. The current reconciliation package includes only taxing and spending... so they could write a separate bill for the debt ceiling.

The challenge is that it's a process that takes some time.

[PortTack]

10. Thx! Nice to know

[gab13by13]

3. Not going to happen under reconciliation,

Democrats would have to come up with a monetary number.

Vote on it as a stand alone bill and let GQPers vote it down and own it. I can go without SS for a while.

[Karma13612]

4. ?? Are you saying that

Our SS checks stop if the Gov goes into shut down?

OMG

I can’t go without mine…..

[FBaggins]

6. No. Social Security doesn't stop during a shutdown

It's likely that they won't start new retirement benefits, but they don't stop sending out existing SS income.

Keep in mind that the government doesn't really "shut down". They just can't issue new debt. That just means that they are constrained to spending no more than they take in. Not "zero spending"

Plus... Social Security is self-funded. It isn't "discretionary spending".

[True Blue American]

8. They close parks

[FBaggins]

5. It appears that it is

Democrats would have to come up with a monetary number.

Which is what they were hoping to avoid and what republicans are hoping to stick them with...

... but it isn't as though they can't come up with a number.

[True Blue American]

7. Do not panic.

They do this almost every year. Biden is an old pro on the Senate. He knows how to negotiate, twist arms, etc.

[Freethinker65]

9. Pull a Trump. Threaten to cut pack funding to areas of legislators that want to default

That want to default on paying bills incurred during the Trump administration first. They voted for Trump policies that were NEVER paid for and would rather see suffering than pay the damn bills.