OP: President Biden portrays House Republicans as hostage-takers for demanding that deficit savings accompany any debt limit increase. But his position is the one that actually represents the departure from Washington norms and precedents.
The president is entitled to his policy preference. But his position is the one that actually represents the departure from Washington norms and precedents.
And these were not merely Republican initiatives. In 1993 and 2009, Democrats had control of the White House and Congress, and insisted on marrying their own debt limit increases to deficit-reduction legislation. So those who argue that deficit negotiations should take place outside the debt limit must grapple with Washington’s four-decade refusal to address deficits outside of debt limit debates. Congress cannot even pass a budget, and those are mostly non-binding anyway.
Under President Trump, congressional Democrats demanded and received $620 billion in added spending as part of various debt limit negotiations—and House Democrats still voted against the 2018 debt limit increase by a vote of 73 to 119. Yet few called those Democrats “hostage takers” toying with default in order to force through their agenda. The majority of House Democrats also voted for debt limit default in 2013 even under a Democratic president.
However, President Biden has no basis to claim that his new clean debt limit demand is any more legitimate than the Republican demand of deficit savings—especially when the president’s position more sharply deviates from 40 years of past precedents from both parties. The president is entitled to oppose the GOP spending cut demands as bad policy—just as Republicans are entitled to oppose the president’s unrestrained borrowing.
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