What Does Mitch McConnell Want in the Debt Ceiling Standoff?

[PoliticAverse]

WASHINGTON — In March 2006, as the government veered dangerously close to a default, Senator Mitch McConnell, the No. 2 Republican, let the Bush White House know he was two votes short of what he needed to raise the legal limit on federal borrowing.

Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, began working the phones. He soon found two Democrats willing to break ranks and vote to put the legislation over the top. But instead of thanking him, the Senate leader grew irate. Mr. McConnell had been hoping to extract concessions from President George W. Bush as the price for uniting Republicans around lifting the limit.

“I don’t need your damned votes,” he snapped at Mr. Card. He lifted the debt ceiling with Republicans only.

Mr. Card never learned what the Kentucky Republican wanted, but he tells the story for a reason: Mr. McConnell has long used the periodic need to raise the government’s borrowing limit as a moment of leverage to secure a policy win, as have leaders of both parties.

Read the rest at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-does-mitch-mcconnell-want-in-the-debt-ceiling-standoff/ar-AAP9pXh

[ColinC]

1. I imagine in this case he just wants to derail Bidens entire agenda

[sakabatou]

2. Bingo

[Haggard Celine]

3. Yep.

He and the rest of the GOP know that both the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill will be great for the economy, and a good economy will make it hard for Republicans to campaign against the Democrats in 2022 and 2024. They're putting the country's future in jeopardy for their own personal political gain.

[Wounded Bear]

4. This nt

[Rhiannon12866]

5. +100!

[cate94]

6. Exactly

[cstanleytech]

7. That is clearly the goal. nt

[FBaggins]

8. Simple - He wants us to raise the debt ceiling through reconciliation

The easy answer is that he wants to blame Democrats for the increase in the debt - but that's not really it.

By using reconciliation, we have to pick a new debt limit figure... which will be many trillions higher than the last figure. They will spin this as proving that Biden is lying about the true cost of his programs.

[2 Meow Momma]

9. This is it. And if Dems use a filibuster work-around, the turtle can blame

us for setting a precedent when, in his twisted mind, he does his own work-around when he is majority leader. He still blames Reid for dropping the filibuster for judicial nominations as the turtle drops it for SCOTUS.

[andym]

10. To damage Democrats. NT.

[Patton French]

11. He wants the Senate Democrats to sign on to a specific number

According to Dana Bash on CNN.