Negotiations to lift the federal debt ceiling are moving forward, though there’s enough within the air to maintain the drama going.
Looks Republican now power get some of the fiscal restraint they demand in exchange for allowing Uncle Sam to get deeper into debt (sorry, future generations!).
The emerging deal would allow for brand spanking new loans for 2 years, kicking one other game over the limit to the subsequent Congress and (hopefully) president.
The GOP (and voters) are sort of frozen into federal discretionary spending, leaving Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlements intact.
The reference point for the freeze is still under discussion (somewhere between this yr’s and last yr’s expenditures), and the way much defense and veterans expenditures are also frozen.
Because House Republicans can Already when you refuse to comply with higher spending, that could be a much smaller White House concession than you want to to imagine the cries of the left.
Then again, the deal would cut some of the $80 billion (over a decade) of latest IRS money passed by the last Democrat-led Congress. Nevertheless, the cuts could be as little as $10 billion, which is a start, but lower than you may expect given all of the news suggesting the agency is now heavily armed to favor Democrats – especially the Biden clan.
![Kevin McCarthy](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011582829.jpg?w=1024)
And the most important point of contention stays the GOP’s push to impose modest requirements that able-bodied adults work to qualify for Food Stamps (SNAP) and/or Medicaid.
It’s astonishing that progressives still oppose this: labor rules were central to the landmark 1996 welfare reform, which was hugely successful in alleviating poverty – the reverse of the leftist mass suffering predicted on the time.
Furthermore, job requirements are common throughout the remaining of the developed world, even in European welfare states. They are just common sense.
Worst of all are the suggestions that the “freeze” will be fake — that the contract allows accounting tricks to be used in order that little, if any, expenditure is reduced: For instance, money taken from the tax office will still be spent, but Other Dems love programs.
All of the drama surrounding what should be easy (if brutal) negotiations is bad enough. If the entire thing seems to be just theater, voters should quit All these scribbles.