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As the Republicans’ debt ceiling crisis intensifies, the problem is not just that GOP lawmakers disagree with President Joe Biden’s position, it’s that they seem utterly baffled by it.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, who tends to be a bit more pragmatic than some of his far-right brethren, told NBC News yesterday, in response to a question about resolving the standoff, “We need presidential leadership. This is negative leadership.” The Louisiana Republican added, “I don’t know why the guy wants to be president again.”
Around the same time, Sen. Rick Scott pressed a similar point, insisting that Biden is disengaged. “If you cared about the debt ceiling,” the Florida Republican said, “you’d be meeting every day, twice a day.”
Even conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who really ought to know better, recently complained that the president’s decision not to engage in debt ceiling negotiations represented a “deficiency of leadership.”
It’s easy to imagine some of the public finding this persuasive. After all, time is running out, the stakes are enormous, and GOP leaders keep talking about how eager they are to sit down at the negotiating table. Shouldn’t Biden be working the phones? Pitching solutions? Presenting compromise plans?
Actually, no.
If Republicans’ confusion about the White House’s position is sincere, there’s probably value in helping clarify matters.
1. Biden is happy to negotiate, but not over the debt ceiling.
There’s a government funding deadline in September, and the president has said he’s eager to sit down and have good faith talks with GOP leaders about the budget. But the debt ceiling is a different monster altogether.
Working out a bipartisan deal over federal spending makes sense. Engaging in hostage negotiations with Republicans over the full faith and credit of the United States, while they threaten to deliberately crash the economy, is a non-starter. To bargain with those threatening Americans with deliberate harm is to encourage others to threaten Americans with deliberate harm.
2. Good faith talks are impossible under these circumstances.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but good faith talks among elected officials are literally impossible when one side is holding a gun to the head of the economy during the process. It’s just not how responsible adults in an advanced democracy can be expected to conduct themselves.
If Republicans want to have a debate over their priorities, they should let the hostage go and begin budget talks like grown-ups.
3. Too many Republicans have already said they won’t compromise.
The ostensible point of negotiations would be to produce some kind of bipartisan deal, but quite a few GOP officials have already said there’s no point in trying to reach a compromise — because they won’t accept one.
Rep. Bob Good told NBC News last week, in reference to the right-wing House bill, “This is not a negotiating piece. It is the deal. The Senate and president have to take it.” The Virginian added soon after that he expects House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to tell Democratic leaders that the lower chamber will not pass any bill that makes “changes to this deal.”
It was against this backdrop that Republican Rep. Ralph Norman told Politico that McCarthy promised his far-right members that their debt ceiling bill “was a floor, not a ceiling.” The South Carolinian added that the House speaker “told them he would personally oppose and fight against any debt ceiling agreement that doesn’t include all of the red-meat provisions in the House bill.”
What’s the point in trying to work out a deal with a party that apparently doesn’t want to work out a deal? Republicans aren’t looking for a compromise, they’re looking for capitulation. They don’t expect Biden to work on a deal, they expect him to surrender in the face of unreasonable demands.
4. No one benefits when policymakers set dangerous precedents.
The more those in positions of authority give in to hostage takers, the more hostage takers will have an incentive to continue to put people at risk. If Biden pays GOP leaders a ransom now, every debt ceiling deadline will become an opportunity — presumably, for both parties — to create new crises forevermore.
5. Negotiating from a position of weakness doesn’t work.
Biden’s position is simple: Congress should pass a clean debt ceiling increase, just as previous generations of lawmakers have done, including three times during Donald Trump’s presidency. The moment the incumbent president sits down in pursuit of a compromise, he’d find himself in an untenable position in which he’s effectively making offers, chasing GOP approval.
In other words, Republicans want to create a negotiating dynamic in which Biden effectively tells GOP leaders, “How about this? Do these cuts make you happy? How about deeper cuts?” until Republicans declare their satisfaction.
6. This isn’t Biden’s first rodeo.
The Democrat, during his tenure as vice president, participated in debt ceiling negotiations with far-right GOP leaders. Biden also learned that such talks don’t actually lead to worthwhile and constructive results, which is one of the reasons he’s opposed to making the same mistake twice.
As a White House spokesperson told NBC News in January, “In 2011, the Obama-Biden administration negotiated in good faith, but congressional Republicans’ recklessness caused an historic blow to our economy. That’s why the administration didn’t negotiate in 2013 or after.”
GOP officials can’t understand why Biden isn’t negotiating? Perhaps they’re not paying close enough attention.