Enraged by GOP debt limit extortion? Blame MAGA's moderate enablers. [View all]

[Zorro]

When it comes to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s use of the debt limit as a weapon of extortion, the media relentlessly focuses on his dealings with extreme conservatives. They’re the ones, we’re told, who are pressuring the California Republican to refuse to raise the U.S. borrowing limit, threatening default and economic disaster, to squeeze Democrats for extreme spending cuts.

But this storyline lets another key GOP group off the hook: The supposedly reasonable Republicans — the moderates, the centrists, the pragmatists, whatever you call them — who could end this madness now if they chose but instead are enabling the crisis.

The White House wants a “clean” debt limit increase, allowing the government to pay for what Congress has already appropriated with no conditions. But GOP leaders are threatening not to pay our bills unless the entire federal budget is remade according to their radical vision — even though Republicans raised the debt limit without incident three times under the last GOP president.

That’s absurd. But it would not be possible without the complicity of all parts of the House GOP — the leadership, the far-right and the allegedly responsible center. If the supposed moderates wanted to, they could join Democrats to support a clean increase.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/21/republicans-debt-limit-extortion-moderates/