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      The debt ceiling deal isn’t perfect but it’s the only one – and it must pass | Robert Reich

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      House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden reached a deal last night to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations.Is it a good deal? Who will bear the burden? Should it have ever gotten to this point? Did Biden blow it?These questions will be debated endlessly over the next weeks and perhaps months, but one of them is relevant right now.The only relevant question is whether Republican McCarthy and Democrat Biden, the US president, along with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic congressman from New York, can cobble together a majority to pass it before 5 June.That’s when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the US will run out of funds to pay its bills.I believe they can, because they must. There’s no time for further negotiations, and neither side would give anything else away. The deal is done.But the Maga right crazies in the House – anywhere from 28 to 123 by my measure – may not go along, especially if former US president Donald Trump says it’s a bad deal. Which means additional House Democrats will have to agree to it.Will they? Here’s where the asymmetry between House Republicans who don’t believe in government and House Democrats who do comes into play.Progressive Democrats will object to the freeze on certain domestic discretionary spending programs and additional work requirements on the recipients of food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as unfair and unnecessary.But most House Democrats will go along with the deal because they believe in government, and they don’t want the US to default – with potentially cataclysmic consequences domestically and internationally.Many in the House Maga crowd, on the other hand, will see this vote as an opportunity to show their supporters that they’re willing to blow up the system, because they were voted in on their promise to blow up the system.Whether the deal is good or bad is irrelevant. It’s the only deal. The alternative is chaos.Republicans have succeeded in holding the nation hostage, and now we must pay the ransom that’s been negotiated.What happens from here depends on how many members of the House prefer governing to chaos. More

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      Biden and McCarthy reach ‘in principle’ deal to raise debt ceiling days before US default

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      Joe Biden and the House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, have reached a deal in principle to raise the federal government’s $31.4tn debt ceiling, with just days left before America was expected to default.Biden on Saturday called the agreement “an important step forward,” and characterised it as a compromise that nevertheless protected Democrats’ key priorities.“The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want,” he said in a statement. “That’s the responsibility of governing.”McCarthy said there was still “a lot of work to do”, but called it an agreement “worthy of the American people”.Biden and McCarthy held a 90-minute phone call earlier on Saturday evening to discuss the deal.Full details of the agreement remained unconfirmed, but it was reported that the deal would raise the debt limit for two years, averting any further standoffs until after the 2024 presidential election.“It is an important step forward that reduces spending while protecting critical programs for working people and growing the economy for everyone”, Biden said, saying the legislative text was still being finalised, while urging congress to pass the bill. According to McCarthy there are no new taxes and the bill includes “historic reductions in spending, consequential reforms that will lift people out of poverty and into the workforce.”“I expect to finish the writing of the bill, checking with the White House and speaking to the president again tomorrow afternoon, and then posting the text of it tomorrow, and then we vote on it on Wednesday,” McCarthy said.The deal still needs to receive approval from the divided Congress, and McCarthy will probably need some support from Democratic members to get the proposal through the House, given Republicans’ narrow majority in the lower chamber.The deal would avert an economically destabilising default which the Treasury Department warned would occur if the debt ceiling was not raised by 5 June.Republicans who control the House of Representatives have pushed for steep cuts to spending and for funds to be stripped from the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax agency.Both sides have suggested one of the main holdups had been a Republican effort to boost work requirements for recipients of food stamps and other federal aid programs, a longtime Republican goal that many Democrats have strenuously opposed.Exact details of the final deal were not immediately available, but negotiators have agreed to cap non-defence discretionary spending at 2023 levels for two years, in exchange for a debt ceiling increase over a similar period, sources told Reuters earlier.The two sides have to carefully thread the needle in finding a compromise that can clear the House, with a 222-213 Republican majority, and Senate, with a 51-49 Democratic majority.The long standoff spooked financial markets, weighing on stocks and forcing the United States to pay record-high interest rates in some bond sales. A default would take a far heavier toll, economists say, likely pushing the nation into recession, shaking the world economy and leading to a spike in unemployment.Biden for months refused to negotiate with McCarthy over future spending cuts, demanding that lawmakers first pass a “clean” debt-ceiling increase free of other conditions, and present a 2024 budget proposal to counter his issued in March. Two-way negotiations between Biden and McCarthy began in earnest on 16 May.Democrats accused Republicans of playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship with the economy. Republicans say recent increased government spending is fueling the growth of the US debt, which is now roughly equal to the annual output of the economy.McCarthy has vowed to give House members 72 hours to read the legislation before bringing it to the floor for a vote. That will test whether enough moderate members support the compromises in the bill to overcome opposition from both hard-right Republicans and progressive Democrats.Then it will need to pass the Senate, where it will need at least nine Republican votes to succeed. There are multiple opportunities in each chamber along the way to slow down the process. More

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      US debt ceiling talks continue into weekend amid signs deal is close

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      Negotiations over America’s looming debt crisis pushed into Saturday amid signs that a deal between Joe Biden’s administration and Republicans was close to being struck even as the deadline for a potentially catastrophic US default was nudged by a few days.The Associated Press reported that work requirements for federal food aid recipients have emerged as a final sticking point in talks, even as Biden had said on Friday that a deal on raising the debt ceiling was “very close”.Biden’s optimism came after the deadline when the US government would run short of funds to pay all its bills was pushed back to 5 June, giving both sides more breathing room but also raising the prospects that talks – which had seemed almost at a deal on Friday evening – could now stretch into next week.On Saturday, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that he was making “progress” in negotiations with Biden, saying: “We do not have a deal … We are not there yet. We did make progress, we worked well into early this morning and we’re back at it now,” according to Reuters.When asked if Congress is able to meet the 5 June deadline, McCarthy swiftly responded: “Yes,” the Hill reports.Asked if a deal could be announced on Saturday, he replied: “I don’t know about today”.Biden and McCarthy have seemed to be narrowing on a two-year budget-slashing deal that would also extend the US debt limit into 2025 past the next presidential election.Both sides have suggested one of the main holdups is a Republican effort to boost work requirements for recipients of food stamps and other federal aid programs, a longtime Republican goal that many Democrats have strenuously opposed.The White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Republican proposals on the issue were “cruel and senseless” and said Biden and Democrats would oppose them.But at the same time the Louisiana congressman Garret Graves, one of McCarthy’s negotiators, was blunt when asked if Republicans might relent, saying: “Hell no, not a chance.”Bates condemned House Republicans in a statement to Politico, accusing them of “threatening to trigger an unprecedented recession and cost the American people over 8 million jobs unless they can take food out of the mouths of hungry Americans.”Americans and the world have watched with growing fear and and anger as the negotiating brinkmanship that could throw the US economy into chaos has dragged on in yet another repeat of the regular political theater that always seems to surround the issue in Washington.Yet Biden was upbeat as he left for the Memorial Day weekend at Camp David, declaring: “It’s very close, and I’m optimistic.”In a blunt warning, the Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Friday that failure to act by the new date for default would “cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests”.Anxious retirees and others were already making contingency plans for missed checks, with the next Social Security payments due next week.Any deal struck by the White House and Republican negotiators would need to be a political compromise, with support from both Democrats and Republicans needed to pass the divided US Congress.McCarthy has promised to give his Republican members 72 hours to go through any deal, pushing back a vote to at least Tuesday and possibly much later in the week, depending on when a deal can be announced.On Saturday, Axios revealed that independent senator Kyrsten Sinema has joined the negotiations, according to sources familiar with the matter.The outlet reported that as Sinema attempts to use her newfound independent position to help negotiators reach a compromise, some Democratic lawmakers are privately concerned that her involvement might limit key renewable energy proposals.Currently, Republicans are seeking to make modifications to the National Environmental Policy Act in order to remove legal restrictions for oil and gas companies. Meanwhile, Democrats have urged the Biden administration and Democratic congressional leaders to oppose any Nepa changes.Earlier this month, Arizona’s representative Raúl Grijalva, a ranking member of the House natural resources committee, sent a letter – along with 79 other Democrats – to Biden and Democratic leadership, urging them to oppose environmental rollbacks in any deal.Ultimately, focus would especially be on the reaction to rightwing Republicans in the House, especially those in the Freedom Caucus mostly aligned with former US president Donald Trump.“Raising the debt ceiling is not a ‘concession’ by Republicans – it’s their constitutional duty,” the New York Democratic representative Dan Goldman tweeted on Friday.“Republicans are extorting the American people by threatening to crater the economy to extract unreasonable demands they’d never be able to get in the ordinary appropriations process,” he added.Several credit-rating agencies have said they have put the US on review for a possible downgrade, which would push up borrowing costs and undercut its standing as the backbone of the global financial system.A similar 2011 standoff led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade its rating on US debt, hammering markets and sending the government’s borrowing costs higher. 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      Negotiators edge closer to debt ceiling deal as Yellen extends deadline to 5 June

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      Democratic and Republican negotiators struggled on Friday to reach a deal to raise the US government $31.4tn debt ceiling, as a key Republican cited disagreements over work requirements for some benefit programs for low-income Americans.On Friday, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said the US would run out of money to pay its bills by 5 June, a slight extension of her earlier 1 June prediction.Talks had been reported to be close to conclusion, as lawmakers sought to avoid a disastrous and unprecedented default. Wall Street and European shares rose as the White House and congressional Republicans worked on the final touches of a package to present to Congress.Negotiators appeared to be nearing a deal to lift the limit for two years and cap spending, with agreement on funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the military, Reuters quoted a US official as saying. But a White House official told the same outlet talks could easily slip into the weekend.Lawmakers were placed on call after leaving Washington for the Memorial Day holiday.“We have made progress,” the lead Republican negotiator, Garret Graves, told reporters. “I said two days ago, we had some progress that was made on some key issues, but I want to be clear, we continue to have major issues that we have not bridged the gap on, chief among them work requirements.”The Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol: “We know it’s crunch time. We’re not just trying to get an agreement, we’re trying to get something that’s worthy of the American people, that changes the trajectory.”Democrats indicated Joe Biden was willing to consider spending cuts, including to planned extra funding for the IRS, a target of rightwing attacks, the Washington Post reported. Citing an anonymous official, Reuters said the deal would raise the ceiling for two years “while capping spending on everything but military and veterans”.On Thursday night, the North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry, a Republican negotiator, said: “I think there’s a sense of understanding from both teams that we have serious issues still to work out and come to terms with, and that’s going to take some time. That’s all there is to it.”Any deal would have to pass the House and Senate, which typically takes days to complete.Yellen has warned for months that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be a “catastrophe”. In a letter to Congress released on Friday, she said the federal government was due to make more than $130bn in payments in the first few days of June, including payments to veterans and social Security and Medicare recipients, and leaving the treasury with “an extremely low level of resources”.Raising the debt ceiling is usually a formality, if subject to political grandstanding. Republicans raised the ceiling without preconditions three times under Donald Trump, while adding to the debt with tax cuts and spending rises.But McCarthy has only a five-seat majority and is beholden to the far right of his party, which is demanding stringent cuts.On Thursday the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters: “We’re fighting against Republicans’ extreme, devastating proposal that would slash … law enforcement, education, food assistance, all of these things are critical to American families who are just trying to make ends meet.”Most analysts say a default would cast the global economy into market chaos and probable recession. This week, the US treasury cash balance dropped to $49.5bn, prompting Bloomberg TV to report: “There are 24 individuals on the Bloomberg Billionaires list who have more money than the treasury does right now.”Reuters spoke to David Beers, a former head of sovereign ratings for Standard & Poor’s, which in 2011 reacted to a similar Republican-fueled debt standoff by downgrading its US credit rating, a move that stoked market instability.“We thought that the political polarisation in the country was likely to endure, and secondly, we were also concerned about the rising trajectory of debt,” Beers said. “On both of our counts, our expectations, if anything … have been exceeded. I have no doubt in my mind that was the right call.”Now, some on the Republican right, including Trump, the former president and current presidential frontrunner, say the party should let the US default if Biden refuses to cave.The deputy treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told CNN the government did not have the capability to “triage” payments if the debt ceiling is not raised. Adeyamo also said invoking the 14th amendment – which says public debt “shall not be questioned” – would not solve the problem.Adeyemo said: “I don’t have any confidence that we have the ability to be able to do a type of prioritisation that will mean that all seniors, all veterans, all Americans get paid.”Some House Democrats are upset at being kept out of negotiations, and at how Biden has fielded advisers rather than consistently getting involved himself. Democrats have also bemoaned how Republicans seem to be winning the messaging war, public polling showing support for spending cuts – and a ceiling raise.Rosa DeLauro, from Connecticut, told Politico: “The scale of the cuts [demanded by Republicans] is staggering, which really the public knows very little about. The president should be out there.”Biden was due to meet winning basketball teams at the White House on Friday, then travel to the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.Steven Horsford of Nevada, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said: “They need to use the power of the presidency … I need the American people to know that Democrats are here fighting, working, prepared to reach an agreement to avoid a default and only the White House, the president, can explain that in this moment.”Biden has not been silent. On Thursday, at the White House, he said Republicans wanted “huge cuts” that would hurt ordinary Americans.“It’s time for Congress to act, now,” he said, adding: “Under my administration, we’ve already cut the deficit by $1.7tn in our first three years. But Speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order.“I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of middle-class and working-class Americans. My House Republican friends disagree.”
      Reuters contributed reporting More

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      Judge pauses South Carolina abortion ban; emerging debt ceiling agreement ‘has fewer cuts than expected’ – as it happened

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      From 5h agoA judge has blocked a South Carolina law enacted this week that bans most abortions past the six-week mark, a point at which most women are not yet aware they are pregnant, the Associated Press reports.The ruling by judge Clifton Newman is the latest complication conservative state lawmakers have faced as they move to cut off abortion access following the supreme court’s decision last year overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states to restrict the procedure entirely. Newman ordered the law put on hold until the state supreme court can review it, in a ruling that came 24 hours after the law was signed by governor Henry McMaster, the AP reports.The state now reverts to a previous law that bans abortions at about the 20-week mark.Talks are ongoing over reaching a debt ceiling deal, amid reports that negotiators for Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are nearing an agreement that would cut some government spending while preserving many of the White House’s priorities. Meanwhile, the GOP-led push to tighten abortion access was dealt a setback in South Carolina, where a judge temporarily halted a newly passed ban on procedures past the sixth week of pregnancy until the state supreme court can review it.Here is what else happened today:
      Officials in Ron DeSantis’s administration have asked lobbyists for contributions to his newly announced presidential campaign, raising ethical and potentially legal questions.
      Texas lawmakers could as soon as today oust the state’s attorney general over an array of misconduct.
      In Iowa, Republican governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill curtailing children’s access to information about gender and sexuality in schools.
      No matter how the debt limit standoff is resolved, the United States is on a worrying financial path, a government report concludes.
      North Dakota’s governor Doug Burgum is poised to jump into the presidential race.
      The Republican presidential field will gain a new entrant early next month, when North Dakota governor Doug Burgum announces his campaign for president, the Washington Post reports.Burgum does not have much of a national profile, and it’s unclear how he will differentiate himself from the race’s frontrunner Donald Trump and his strongest challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Burgum has signed a law banning almost all abortions in the reliably-Republican state, and another cracking down on transgender rights.Despite his pursuit of rightwing policies typical of Republican governors nationwide, Burgum complained to the editorial board of North Dakota newspaper the Forum that many Americans feel alienated from the political process. “There’s definitely a yearning for some alternatives right now,” he said.Just what is keeping the debt ceiling negotiators from finding a deal? Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy said earlier today that overall government spending was the biggest point of contention.But CNN reports that Garret Graves, the Louisiana congressman who is McCarthy’s lead negotiators with Joe Biden’s deputies, said the GOP is insisting on stricter work requirements for government aid programs:Studies have shown that more stringent requirements for government aid recipients to work undercut the programs’ effectiveness. Perhaps most importantly for the talks aimed at warding off a US government default, several Democrats say they’re opposed to tightening work requirements, potentially threatening the path to enactment of any compromise that includes such provisions.Let’s have a quick vibe check of the US Capitol, home to both behind-closed-doors negotiations that may determine whether the world’s largest economy is brought to its knees by a debt default in a few days, and tour groups.Those who lead visitors around the Capitol are maintaining their sense of humor about all this, the Associated Press finds:Some of the tourists are, unfortunately, not, The Messenger reports:Here’s video of the moment a Louisiana State University women’s basketball player fainted onstage at the White House:The team’s coach told reporters on scene that the player was “fine”.At the White House, Joe Biden was in the middle of remarks honoring the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team for winning the NCAA title when someone collapsed onstage.The Guardian’s David Smith was covering the event when it happened, and reports the person has been taken out of the room.The South Carolina anti-abortion bill now on hold was approved on Tuesday. Here’s a bit more on what it contained:If signed into law the bill would ban most abortions at about six weeks, a period when most people are unaware they are pregnant.The Fetal Heartbeat and Protection From Abortion Act would ban abortions at the earliest detection of cardiac activity, and, if signed into law, would set up a judicial battle over whether the bill is constitutional. The bill already passed the state house legislature with overwhelming support, and is part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation passed or proposed throughout the country since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion.Abortion access in the south – which already has some of the most restrictive laws in the country – has been dramatically curtailed with new legislation in North Carolina and Florida. A series of Texas laws prohibit abortions after six weeks and make performing abortions a felony punishable up to life in prison.The Guardian’s Nick Robins-Early reported for us on the decision earlier this week:Here’s some markets news. Traders are in a better mood.Reuters reports:
      Wall Street jumped on Friday following progress in negotiations on raising the U.S. debt ceiling, while chip stocks surged for a second straight day on optimism about artificial intelligence.After several rounds of talks, U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy appeared to be nearing a deal to increase the government’s $31.4 trillion debt limit for two years, while capping spending on most items, a U.S. official told Reuters.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set to end a five-day losing streak, while the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped to its highest level since August 2022.”
      Investors were closely watching debt ceiling talks as Biden and McCarthy still seemed at odds over several issues heading into the long weekend, with the U.S. stock market closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.“All the signs point to a deal getting done and this rally being sustained, but if we get through the weekend and we don’t have a deal or it falls apart in some way, then we’re going to wake up Tuesday morning to some pretty material losses,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.
      It’s an amazing/excruciating time to be alive when waiting for a debt ceiling deal. Into every news vacuum a little vacillation, vacuousness and vim must rush.Here’s a news “snap” from Reuters, moments ago.
      DEBT CEILING DEAL IS POSSIBLE ON FRIDAY BUT COULD EASILY SLIP INTO WEEKEND – BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL.”
      As we wait for more information, here’s a brilliant tweet from a CNN reporter/producer.Democrats are buoyant in Minnesota after a powerhouse legislative session and former US president Barack Obama has noticed and is holding the state up as an example and a fillip for his politics and party.“If you need a reminder that elections have consequences, check out what’s happening in Minnesota,” he tweeted earlier today.Obama further tweets that: “Earlier this year, Democrats took control of the State Senate by one seat after winning a race by just 321 votes. It gave Democrats control of both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion.“Since then, Minnesota has made progress on a whole host of issues – from protecting abortion rights and new gun safety measures to expanding access to the ballot and reducing child poverty. These laws will make a real difference in the lives of Minnesotans.”And a further optimistic note.The Minpost.com article Obama linked to in the first tweet describes the legislative session just ended as “transformational” and “bonkers” depending on your party.The so-called DFL, which stands for Democratic Farmer Labor party, aka the Democrats in Minnesota, “codified abortion rights, paid family and medical leave, sick leave, transgender rights protections, drivers licenses for undocumented residents, restoration of voting rights for people when they are released from prison or jail, wider voting access, one-time rebates, a tax credit aimed at low-income parents with kids, and a $1 billion investment in affordable housing including for rental assistance,” the publication noted.As Republican legislatures continue their march to the right, Iowa’s latest move is to ban teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students up to grade six (typically 11-years-old), and all books depicting sex acts will be removed from school libraries, under a bill Republican governor Kim Reynolds signed today.The Associated Press reports:
      The new law is among similar measures that have been approved in other Republican-dominated statehouses around the country. As with many of those proposals, Iowa Republicans framed their action as a commonsense effort to ensure that parents can oversee what their children are learning in school and that teachers not delve into topics such as gender and sexuality.
      Despite the opposition of all Democratic legislators, Republicans who hold large majorities in Iowa’s state House and Senate approved the measure in April and there was little doubt that Reynolds would sign it; she had made issues related to gender identity and sexuality a focal point of her legislative agenda this year.
      “This legislative session, we secured transformational education reform that puts parents in the driver’s seat, eliminates burdensome regulations on public schools, provides flexibility to raise teacher salaries, and empowers teachers to prepare our kids for their future,” Reynolds said in a statement.
      Under the new law, school administrators also would be required to notify parents if students asked to change their pronouns or names. Religious texts will be exempt from the library ban on books depicting sex acts.
      Democrats and LGBTQ+ groups argued that the restrictions would hurt children by limiting their ability to be open with teachers about gender and sexuality issues and to see their lives reflected in books and other curriculum.
      The law also requires schools to post online a list of books in libraries, along with instructions for parents on how to review them and classroom instructional material, and to request that any material be removed. Schools would need parental approval before they could give surveys to students related to numerous topics, including mental health issues, sex and political affiliation.
      This builds on two bills that Reynolds signed into law earlier in the year, restricting the restrooms transgender students can use and banning gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, for people younger than 18.
      The anti-abortion law that a judge in South Carolina just blocked is similar to a ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected that lawmakers there had passed in 2021.The Associated Press adds:
      The state supreme court decided previously that the 2021 law violated the state constitution’s right to privacy. Legislative leaders said the new law makes technical tweaks. But judge Clifton Newman said: “The status quo should be maintained until the supreme court reviews its decision. It’s going to end up there.”
      Tuesday’s law went into effect immediately after it was signed and Planned Parenthood reported that nearly all of the 75 women with appointments for abortions over the next several days appeared to be past six weeks pregnant, an attorney for the women’s health group, Kathleen McDaniel said, who said the harm to women “is happening. It has already happened.”
      The South Carolina measure joins stiff limitations pending in North Carolina and Florida, states that had been holdouts providing wider access to the procedure.
      We are awaiting news of a debt ceiling deal, amid reports that negotiators for Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are nearing an agreement that would cut some government spending while preserving many of the White House’s priorities. Meanwhile, the GOP-led push to tighten abortion access was dealt a setback in South Carolina, where a judge temporarily halted a newly passed ban on procedures past the sixth week of pregnancy until the state supreme court can review it.Here is what else has happened today:
      Officials in Ron DeSantis’s administration have asked lobbyists for contributions to his newly announced presidential campaign, raising ethical and potentially legal questions.
      Texas lawmakers could as soon as today oust the state’s attorney general over an array of misconduct.
      No matter how the debt limit standoff is resolved, the United States is on a worrying financial path, a government report concludes.
      Shortly after Roe v Wade was overturned, an Indiana doctor went public with the story of a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who had to seek an abortion in the state, which prompted Indiana’s Republican attorney general to demand that the doctor be disciplined for her statements. The Guardian’s Poppy Noor reports on a new development in the case:The Indiana state medical board has ruled that it will allow Dr Caitlin Bernard to continue practicing in Indiana after she spoke out about a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to Indiana for abortion care due to restrictions in the girl’s own state of Ohio.The doctor will not lose her license, although the seven-person board ruled that Bernard violated patient privacy laws in discussing the 10-year-old’s case with media. Bernard was not found to have violated reporting requirements about child abuse in the case – another charge against her.The board was asked by the state attorney general to discipline Bernard last summer, in a nationally watched case that has drawn accusations of being motivated by anti-abortion politics.As the debt ceiling negotiations have worn on, progressive Democrats have called on Joe Biden to consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment to continue paying the government’s bills, even if no increase is agreed on.Biden never seemed that willing to entertain the idea, and in an interview with CNN today, deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo confirmed the idea was off the table:The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that Donald Trump was the victim yesterday of a roasting from an unusual party – his own son:Donald Trump Jr accidentally insulted his father on Thursday night, mixing up his words while trying to condemn Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump’s closest rival for the Republican presidential nomination.“Trump has the charisma of a mortician and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian,” Trump Jr said on his online show, Triggered With Don Jr, on the Rumble video platform on Thursday night.Jeb Bush was a former governor of Florida and party establishment favourite when Trump Sr won the Republican primary in 2016.DeSantis, the current governor of Florida, made his 2024 campaign official on Wednesday, with a glitch-filled launch on Twitter.As Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign heats up, there’s still the matter of his ongoing fight with entertainment giant Disney over the Florida governor’s approach to gay and transgender rights. The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe takes a look at the feud, and what it might mean for DeSantis’s White House bid:It has become one of the most compelling Disney stories ever told, but so far without a happily ever after. In fact, the entrance this week of Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis into the race for his party’s presidential nomination only adds gasoline to his raging feud with the theme park giant over diversity and transgender rights.It’s a battle that is, conversely, both an essential ingredient to the culture war agenda DeSantis believes will win him the White House in 2024; and a headache he could well do without as he attempts to prove his credentials as a fiscally responsible conservative.From the moment Disney’s bosses dared to speak out in March 2022 against DeSantis’s notorious parental rights in education bill, the so-called “don’t say gay” law that outlaws discussion in Florida’s classrooms of sexual orientation and gender identity, the governor climbed aboard a rollercoaster he doesn’t seem to want to get off.“DeSantis is running for president and looking for issues that will appeal to potential Republican primary voters all across the country,” said Aubrey Jewett, professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, and a long-time Disney observer.“Certainly the main reason for attacking Disney is he believes it will increase his name recognition and visibility in a positive way, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. More

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      US House adjourns for holiday weekend without debt ceiling deal

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      The US House adjourned on Thursday for the Memorial Day holiday weekend without any deal reached on the debt ceiling, as America creeps closer to a potential default that could wreak havoc on the economy and global markets.Lawmakers left Washington for their home districts as advisers to the House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, and members of the Biden administration continued to haggle over the details of a deal to raise the debt ceiling and limit government spending.“Speaker McCarthy and I have had several productive conversations, and our staffs continue to meet – as we speak, as a matter of fact – and they’re making progress,” Biden said on Thursday at the White House. “There will be no default, and it’s time for Congress to act now.”Emphasizing that default was not an option, Biden said the negotiations have focused on creating the outlines of a budget that can win bipartisan support, as the president and McCarthy have clashed over their “competing visions for America”.“Speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order,” Biden said. “I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of middle-class and working-class Americans. My House Republican friends disagree.”With just one week left before the potential default deadline of 1 June, negotiators plan to continue their efforts to reach an agreement over the holiday weekend. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday, McCarthy said the previous day’s talks continued well past midnight, and negotiators were meeting around the clock until a deal is reached.“I thought we made some progress,” McCarthy said. “There’s still some outstanding issues, and I’ve directed our teams to work 24/7.”Congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, one of the chief Republican negotiators in the talks, said he did not expect a deal to be announced on Thursday.“Everything’s sensitive at this moment,” McHenry told reporters. “There’s a balance that has to be struck, and there’s a lot more work that has to be done. But the work that we’re doing centers in on a shorter and shorter array of issues.”Defense spending has emerged as a key point of tension in the talks, as congressional Republicans have pushed to exempt the Pentagon from potential budget cuts. Democrats have flatly rejected that proposal, insisting they will not allow non-defense priorities like education and healthcare to bear all of the proposed cuts.According to the Associated Press, Republicans have expressed openness to the idea of keeping defense spending at the levels proposed by the Biden administration while redirecting some of the funding previously allocated to the Internal Revenue Service.As negotiators edged closer to a deal, some hard-right lawmakers complicated matters for McCarthy by adding additional demands to their budgetary wishlist.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMembers of the House Freedom Caucus sent a letter to McCarthy on Thursday calling on him to add border security provisions to the debt ceiling bill while cutting funding to build a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.They also demanded that the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, provide evidence to substantiate the threat of a default as early as 1 June.“The power of an undivided Republican party guided by conservative principles cannot be overstated,” the Republican members wrote to McCarthy. “As you navigate the debt limit debate, you are the steward of this unity and will determine whether it continues to strengthen and places a historic stamp on this Congress or evaporates.”The letter underscored that McCarthy will probably need some Democratic support to get a debt ceiling compromise through the House, but his colleagues on the other side of the aisle voiced sharp criticism of Republicans’ proposed spending cuts and their decision to leave Washington without a deal.“Republicans have decided to skip town,” the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in a floor speech on Thursday. “They are accusing Democrats, saying we spend too much. For anyone that wants to entertain that thought, I ask you to think about the last time a person has said in this country that the government does too much for them, that their social security check was too high, that teachers are paid too much. When was the last time anyone has heard or seen that?” More

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      Biden and McCarthy to hold White House talks in bid to reach debt deal

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      Joe Biden was due to meet Kevin McCarthy on Monday as the White House sought to stave off a US debt default, a potentially catastrophic event the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has said will happen on or around 1 June if no deal to raise the $31.4tn debt ceiling is reached.If the debt limit is not raised, the US government will default on its bills: a historic first with probably catastrophic consequences. Federal workers would be furloughed, global stock markets would be likely to crash and the US economy would probably drop into recession.McCarthy, the House speaker, leads a Republican caucus demanding harsh spending cuts in return for raising the ceiling. Democrats fear Republicans are willing to allow talks to fail, thereby pitching the US and world economies into chaos, seeing it as a price worth paying for beating Biden at the polls next year.On Monday, in a message seen by the Guardian, a senior Democratic Senate staffer predicted disaster ahead.“I think we will” default, the staffer said. “I think most House Republicans want a default so even if McCarthy could make a deal he won’t have the votes to pass it.”Biden has said he will consider spending cuts but has called Republican demands “unacceptable”, for example saying he will not back subsidies for big energy companies and “wealthy tax cheats” while putting at risk healthcare and food assistance.Biden and McCarthy were due to meet at the White House at 5.30pm ET.On Sunday, arriving at the White House after attending the G7 summit in Japan, Biden told reporters a conversation with McCarthy from Air Force One “went well”.The House speaker said the call was “productive” and added: “Our teams are talking today and we’re … meeting tomorrow. That’s better than it was earlier. So, yes [I am more hopeful].”On Friday, talks paused after Republicans rejected a White House offer to impose spending freezes rather than cuts.On Sunday, McCarthy added: “There’s no agreement. We’re still apart.”On Monday, according to Bloomberg News, the speaker said morning staff-level talks were productive and would continue, adding: “We’re not at a deal.”The debt ceiling was imposed in 1917, a response by Congress to US entry into the first world war. For most of the next 100 years, raising the ceiling was a formal process, if often subject to political grandstanding.Under Donald Trump, Republicans raised the ceiling three times while contributing to rising debt with spending increases and tax cuts for richer Americans.Now, under McCarthy but drawing inspiration from a 2011 standoff in which House Republicans under the then speaker, John Boehner, extracted major concessions from Barack Obama, the GOP is presenting itself as the party of budget hawks.On Sunday the lead Republican negotiator, Garret Graves of Louisiana, told reporters: “A red line is spending less money. And unless and until we’re there, the rest of it is really irrelevant.”Trump, the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, has said the US should default if Biden will not concede to demands that would hobble much of his signature domestic legislation.As the far right of the Republican House caucus remains loyal to Trump, so it exerts its hold on McCarthy after stretching the process by which he became speaker through 15 rounds of voting.Republicans control the House 222-213, while Democrats hold the Senate 51-49, making it tough to secure votes for any bipartisan deal.Democrats have pondered an attempt to peel off Republican House moderates, most in seats in areas won by Biden in 2020, in order to pass their own spending package.Biden has also been urged to invoke the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which says “the validity of the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned”, as a way to bypass House Republicans and stave off a default.The president has progressed from opposing such a move to saying he thinks he has the authority to do it but fears Republican appeals would snarl the process in the courts, leading to a default regardless.On Monday, global markets were gripped by unease.“We expect a resolution to be reached before the deadline, but anticipate unforeseen developments throughout the process,” Bruno Schneller, a managing director at Invico Asset Management, told Reuters. More

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      US debt ceiling talks ‘productive’ as Biden and McCarthy to meet 10 days from deadline

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      US president Joe Biden and House Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy have held a “productive” phone call on the continued impasse over the debt ceiling and promised to meet on Monday after Biden returned to Washington.McCarthy, speaking to reporters after the call, said there were positive discussions on solving the crisis and that staff-level talks were set to resume later on Sunday.Asked if he was more hopeful after talking to the president, McCarthy said: “Our teams are talking today and we’re … meeting tomorrow. That’s better than it was earlier. So, yes.”Biden, who arrived back at the White House late on Sunday evening after his trip to Japan, said the call with McCarthy had gone well. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” he said.Speaking from the G7 summit in Japan on Sunday, Biden said he would be willing to cut spending together with tax adjustments to reach a deal, but the latest offer from Republicans on the ceiling was “unacceptable.”Less than two weeks remain until the 1 June deadline, upon which the Treasury department has said the federal government could be unable to pay all its debts.Without raising the debt limit, the US government will default on its bills, a historic first, with likely catastrophic consequences. Federal workers would be furloughed, global stock markets would crash and the US economy would probably drop into a recession.McCarthy’s comments on Sunday struck a more positive tone than the heated rhetoric of recent days which has seen talks stall.“Much of what they’ve already proposed is simply, quite frankly, unacceptable,” Biden told a news conference in Hiroshima. “It’s time for Republicans to accept that there is no bipartisan deal to be made solely, solely on their partisan terms. They have to move as well.”The president later tweeted that he would not agree to a deal that protected “Big Oil” subsidies and “wealthy tax cheats” while putting healthcare and food assistance at risk for millions of Americans.He also suggested some Republican lawmakers were willing to see the US default on its debt in the hope that the disastrous results would prevent Biden from winning re-election in 2024.After Sunday’s call, McCarthy said while there was still no final deal, there was an understanding to get negotiators on both sides back together before the two leaders met: “There’s no agreement. We’re still apart.”“What I’m looking at are where our differences are and how could we solve those, and I felt that part was productive,” he told reporters.McCarthy has said Republicans backed an increase in the defence budget while cutting overall spending, and that debt ceiling talks have not included discussions about tax cuts passed under former president Donald Trump.Ahead of the call with McCarthy, Biden stressed that he was open to making spending cuts and said he was not concerned they would lead to a recession, but he could not agree to Republicans’ current demands.Last month, the Republican-controlled House passed legislation that would cut a wide swath of government spending by 8% next year. Democrats say that would force average cuts of at least 22% on programs like education and law enforcement, a figure top Republicans have not disputed.Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and Biden’s fellow Democrats have narrow control of the Senate, so no deal can pass without bipartisan support. But time is running out, as Monday’s meeting will take place with just 10 days left to hammer out a deal before hitting Treasury’s deadline.McCarthy has said he will give House lawmakers 72 hours to review an agreement before bringing it up for a vote. More