Immediately after his White House meeting with President Joe Biden this week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked whether he could commit to the public that the GOP won’t force the United States to default on its obligations. The California Republican wouldn’t answer directly.
Instead, the congressional leader said that officials “have five more months“ to work out an agreement. It wasn’t a reassuring answer.
For one thing, the deadline is in early June, which is four months away, not five. For another, if policymakers get anywhere close to early June without a solution in place, Americans will start to notice the economic impact. What’s more, McCarthy doesn’t actually want a deal so much as he wants a ransom: Negotiations involve mutual concessions, and the Republican position is one in which Democrats get nothing.
Yesterday, the speaker added some related thoughts on the burgeoning debt ceiling crisis that seemed a little worse:
“I want to be very responsible with how we deal with it. I was very clear with the president: We should not wait five months. Let’s not put America through turmoil, right? I mean, I looked at the latest polling; the greatest fear people have is government. They want their government to actually work.”
Let’s take those sentences one at a time.
“I want to be very responsible with how we deal with it.” Well, McCarthy and fellow House Republicans are currently threatening to impose an economic catastrophe on Americans — on purpose — unless their unstated demands are met. The dangers are enormous and potentially catastrophic. To see such tactics as “very responsible” is bonkers.
“I was very clear with the president: We should not wait five months.” It’s still four months, and no one is asking McCarthy to wait. He could raise the debt ceiling at any time. It’d take about 10 minutes. What’s more, it might move the process along if the speaker and the House GOP conference could figure out exactly what is they want and fill in the blanks on their ransom note.
“Let’s not put America through turmoil, right?” So, to recap, the House speaker who’s choosing to impose a dangerous debt ceiling crisis on the country has declared, “Let’s not put America through turmoil”? Seriously? It’s McCarthy and his members who are creating the turmoil. This really isn’t that complicated. It’s a bit like a hostage taker complaining about the ransom payers creating unnecessary drama by not moving quickly enough. “I mean, I looked at the latest polling; the greatest fear people have is government.” If McCarthy thinks the public shares his priorities, I have some bad news for him. The latest New York Times/Siena poll asked 1,641 randomly chosen respondents an open-ended question on what they consider the most important problem facing the country. One pointed to the debt, deficit, and/or federal spending — and I don’t mean 1% of respondents, I mean literally one individual person. The idea that the American mainstream supports the imposition of a debt ceiling crisis to address a problem the public doesn’t care about is ridiculous. “They want their government to actually work.” Maybe so, but if McCarthy thinks this increasingly absurd standoff, in which he can’t even make credible demands, offers a case study in the government actually working, he’s in the wrong job. President Joe Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. Follow msnbc.com/sotu for live updates and analysis from experts and insiders.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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