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      Biden, McCarthy agree to raise US debt ceiling – what’s in the deal?

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      Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement to lift the US debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous and unprecedented default. Prior to the details being presented to lawmakers, ahead of an expected vote on Wednesday, here is what sources familiar with negotiations have revealed:Cap on discretionary spendingThe deal would suspend the $31.4tn debt ceiling until January 2025, allowing the government to pay its bills. In exchange, non-defense discretionary spending would be “roughly flat” at current year levels in 2024, “when factoring in agreed-upon appropriations adjustments”, a source said. It would increase by only 1% in 2025.Republicans have told their members that non-defense discretionary spending, apart from military veterans’ healthcare, would be cut to 2022 levels.What about the 2024 presidential election?The debt limit extension schedule means Congress would not need to address the deeply polarizing issue again until after the November 2024 election. This would prevent another political showdown that rattles global investors and markets until after either a Republican is elected president or Biden wins a second term.Increased defense spendingThe deal is expected to boost defense spending to around $885bn, in line with Biden’s 2024 budget spending proposal, an 11% increase from the $800bn allocated in the current budget.Special IRS funding for federal tax authoritiesBiden and Democrats secured $80bn in new funding for a decade to help the Internal Revenue Service enforce the tax code for wealthy Americans in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. Republicans and Democrats had battled over moving that funding, which was allocated under the act as “mandatory spending” to keep it from the political fighting of the annual budgeting process, to “discretionary spending” to be allocated by Congress.Covid clawback, cuts for the CDCBiden and McCarthy are expected to agree to claw back unused Covid-19 relief funds as part of the budget deal, including funding that had been set aside for vaccine research and disaster relief. The estimated amount of unused funds is between $50bn and $70bn. The bill will also cut $400m from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) global health fund “that sends taxpayer money to China”, Republicans told members, despite the risks of future pandemics.Work requirementsBiden and McCarthy battled fiercely over imposing stricter work requirements on low-income Americans who benefit from federal food and healthcare programs.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNo changes were made to Medicaid health insurance in the deal, but the agreement would impose new work requirements on low-income people who receive food assistance, up to age 54, instead of 50.Student loansRepublicans said that they ensured borrowers would have to repay their student loans. However, other sources say the deal codifies relief from student loan payments while Biden’s executive action providing up to $20,000 of debt relief for each borrower is under review by the US supreme court, with a decision expected next month.‘Pay-go’Republicans said they secured a budgeting mechanism known as “pay-go”, short for “pay-as-you-go”, that says new legislation or executive orders affecting revenues and spending on Medicare, social security and other key programs must be budget-neutral.Energy permittingThe two leaders agreed to new rules to make it easier for energy projects – including fossil fuel-based ones as well as renewable energy – to gain permit approval. More

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      Biden says debt ceiling deal ‘in good shape’ amid rush to avert catastrophic default

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      Legislation was being urgently worked on in Washington on Sunday to spell out the details of the tentative deal to raise the US debt ceiling struck between President Joe Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy, with the aim of putting it before Congress and avoiding a catastrophic and unprecedented default in early June.Members of Congress expect to be shown the details of the deal on Sunday evening and McCarthy wants the forthcoming bill to be voted on in the House on Wednesday, he indicated in a press conference on Capitol Hill on Sunday mid-morning, noting that negotiators had been up all night.Biden on Sunday afternoon told reporters when arriving back at the White House, after attending the high school graduation of one of his granddaughters in Delaware, that there were no sticking points before finalizing the agreement with McCarthy and, when asked if he was confident the deal would be voted through Ccongress and reach his desk, replied “yes”.He and the speaker were due to speak again to, as Biden put it: “Make sure all the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted,” adding, “I think we’re in good shape.”Biden and McCarthy had held a 90-minute phone call earlier on Saturday evening to discuss the deal before the outline agreement was first announced that night, with the Democratic US president joining the call from the Camp David retreat and the Republican speaker in the nation’s capital.Biden had said after that: “The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. That’s the responsibility of governing,” while calling the pact “an important step forward”.McCarthy will have to get the legislation through the Republican-controlled House, where his party holds only a five-seat majority. He faces hostility from his far-right wing members who are expected to balk at spending cuts that they deem not deep enough, while progressives may be more likely to choke down cuts and benefits restrictions that they loathe in order to pass the deal.Earlier on Sunday morning, McCarthy boasted on Fox News Sunday that “there’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats” even though Biden achieved his fundamental goal of persuading the Republican to agree to a debt ceiling increase. McCarthy predicted House GOP members will support the deal.McCarthy added at the press conference later: “We are going to put the bill on the [House] floor in 72 hours and pass it.”To reduce spending, as Republicans had insisted, the package includes a two-year budget deal that would hold spending flat for 2024 and impose limits for 2025. That’s in exchange for raising the debt limit for two years, until after the next election.It also expands some work requirements for certain food-stamp recipients and tweaks an environmental law to try to streamline reviews to build new energy projects.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the United States could default on its debt obligations by 5 June if lawmakers do not act in time to raise the federal debt ceiling.Democratic and Republican negotiators ironed out the final details of an agreement to suspend the federal government’s $31.4tn debt ceiling in time to promise to present the legislation to lawmakers before the Memorial Day holiday on Monday.A failure by Congress to deal with its self-imposed debt ceiling before 5 June could trigger a default that would shake financial markets and send the US into a deep recession.House minority leader and Democratic New York representative Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter: “I am thankful to President Biden for his leadership in averting a devastating default,” the letter said.Washington state Democratic representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the congressional progressive caucus, told CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday morning that she did not yet know if she would vote for the deal as she needed to see “the exact legislative text”.She said the notion of tightening conditions for hungry families to claim food stamps was “absolutely terrible policy”.But she warned: “The American people have to understand that we are on the brink of default” after House Republicans forced a negotiation, while further warning that Republicans want to cut “basic spending on things like healthcare, education, child care, all of the things you care about”.South Dakota Republican congressman Dusty Johnson, who was involved in the behind-the-scenes negotiations prior to the leaders agreeing, cheered “a fantastic deal” on Sunday morning, also talking to CNN.Johnson noted he is the leader of the mainstream Republican caucus in the House and said he believes there are freedom caucus members who will vote for it, though maybe not the most “colorful” ones.Republicans control the House by 222-213, while Democrats control the Senate by 51-49. These margins mean that moderates from both sides will have to support the bill, as any compromise will almost definitely lose the support of the far left and far right wings of each party.To win the speaker’s gavel, McCarthy agreed to enable any single member to call for a vote to unseat him, which could lead to his ousting if he seeks to work with Democrats. On Sunday, he said he was “not at all” worried that could happen.Some hardline Republicans balked at McCarthy cooperating with the White House.“If Speaker’s negotiators bring back in substance a clean debt limit increase … one so large that it even protects Biden from the issue in the presidential [election]…it’s war,” representative Dan Bishop, a member of the right wing Freedom Caucus, tweeted.The deal does just that, sources briefed on it said.The deal would boost spending on the military and veterans’ care, and cap it for many discretionary domestic programs, according to sources familiar with talks. But Republicans and Democrats will need to debate, as the deal doesn’t specify them. More

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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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      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. More

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      Debt ceiling showdowns aren’t new – but this time gonzo Republicans are ready to blow up the economy | Robert Reich

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      On 22 October 1985, the treasury secretary, James A Baker III, told congressional leaders that if Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling by the end of the month, the Reagan administration would pay the nation’s bills by taking back treasury securities in which social security had invested.It was an extraordinary move. Under Baker’s plan, social security would lose interest on its funds.If Congress still didn’t raise the debt ceiling, the administration would borrow from the railroad retirement and military retirement trust funds.If the impasse continued, it would begin selling gold from the US gold reserve “even though that could undercut confidence here and abroad based on the widespread belief that the gold reserve is the foundation of our financial system”, said Baker.An agreement was reached after the Reagan administration had begun raiding social security, but before it took any other measures.The comptroller general of the United States later found Baker’s raid on social security technically illegal but concluded nonetheless that Baker “did not act unreasonably” under the circumstances.I recount this history to give you some perspective on the current debt-ceiling crisis.First, showdowns over the debt ceiling have been going on for a long time.Second, they have often been fueled by soaring national debts due to Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations.The 1985 standoff involved a refusal by Senate Democrats to support a balanced budget, even though it was Reagan’s mammoth spending on the military and huge tax cut that had doubled the national debt in less than five years.Finally, they have required Treasury secretaries to do extraordinary things to keep paying the nation’s bills notwithstanding, sometimes technically illegal.Hence, there have never been “X-dates” at which time the treasury runs dry. There are just ever more extreme government bookkeeping measures.But here’s the difference this time. Previous standoffs have been carefully crafted dramas in which both sides demonstrate their commitments to their position, knowing full well how the play will end – with the debt ceiling lifted.This time, though, gonzo lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and nihilists like the current Republican frontrunner for president have considerable influence.And unlike Bob Dole in 1985, these players have no real commitment to cutting the government debt. (Were that their goal, presumably they wouldn’t have supported the massive 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations that fueled the debt, or would now urge its repeal. And they certainly wouldn’t demand cuts in staffing for the IRS, which House Republicans are also now doing.)Their only commitment is to power – gaining dominance over, and submission from, Democrats, progressives, putative “coastal elites” and so-called “deep state” bureaucrats.For them, this is not play-acting. It’s not for show. It’s for real. If they don’t get their way, they’re prepared to blow up the economy.In fact, as the so-called X-date looms ever closer, their demands have only escalated.Which is why it’s critical for Biden to continue paying the government’s bills and for the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, to continue using every bookkeeping scheme imaginable to find the means to pay those bills.They must never declare an “X-date”, and never default.If Kevin McCarthy and his band of radicals don’t like this, let them take the Biden administration to court.Let House Republicans argue in the courts that the 1917 act establishing the debt ceiling has precedence over section 4 of the 14th amendment, which requires that the “the validity of the public debt …. shall not be questioned.”Let them claim that the debt-ceiling act takes precedence over other acts of Congress that require the president, for example, to pay interest on the federal debt, distribute social security benefits, and pay bills from defense contractors and everyone else who has relied on the full faith and credit of the United States.Let McCarthy and House Republicans make the case before the courts that they have standing to sue Biden for paying the government’s debts as they come due.Finally, let McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the other loonies demand openly and publicly in court that Biden not honor the full faith and credit of the United States – with the predictable results that the cost of borrowing soars, bond markets crash, the stock market plummets, the global economy is in turmoil, the dollar’s status as the world’s major currency is up for grabs, America is plunged into a deep recession, and millions of jobs are lost.In other words, leave it to McCarthy and House Republicans to seek to enforce their dangerous nonsense about the debt ceiling – so Americans can see clearly what they’re up to.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com More

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      House speaker McCarthy says ‘I see the path’ to debt ceiling deal with Democrats – as it happened

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      From 5h agoThe Republican House speake,r Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol that he sees “the path” towards a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.Here’s video of the exchange, from CNN:Congress has till about 1 June to raise the US government’s legal limit on how much debt it can take on or face the prospect of a default. Republicans want Joe Biden and his allies to agree to cut spending, and also to scrap administration priorities such as the president’s plan to cancel some federal student debt.After months of refusing to negotiate, Biden agreed to appoint deputies to reach a deal with McCarthy’s team, and if the speaker’s comments are any indication, those talks are paying off.Debt ceiling negotiations seem to be on track, at least if you ask Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy. Some Democrats aren’t so sure. In the Senate, 11 lawmakers say Joe Biden should consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment to prevent a default, rather than agreeing to GOP-devised spending cuts. And in the House, just about every Democrat has signed on to a discharge petition that would force a vote on raising the ceiling without preconditions. But it needs the defections of at least a few Republicans to succeed, and thus far, that support has not emerged.Here’s what else happened today:
      Ron DeSantis is finally getting it over with: the Florida governor will announce his presidential bid next week, according to multiple reports.
      Progressive Democrats remain displeased with the prospect of implementing new work requirements for government aid programs as part of a debt limit deal.
      CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was not happy with how her network handled the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
      California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein’s health may be worse than publicly known, the New York Times reports.
      The House Freedom Caucus says no negotiations with Democrats until the Senate passes the GOP’s bill to raise the debt ceiling while cutting spending and implementing a number of conservative policies – a nonstarter for Democrats.
      As Florida governor Ron DeSantis prepares to announce a presidential campaign where he will sell voters on his controversial governance of the southern state, Disney today announced they were cancelling a billion-dollar office project in Orlando amid a fight with his administration.According to the New York Times, a top Disney executive cited “changing business conditions” for axing the project, which would have seen about 1,000 employees relocated from Southern California. The company has been feuding with DeSantis since last year, when it spoke out against his so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, and last month sued his administration over actions they said illegally targeted their business in the state.That matter is ongoing, but as the Times reports, Disney executives have made clear that they are willing to reconsider their longstanding relationship with the state over DeSantis’s policies. Here’s more from the Times:
      In March, Disney called Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida “anti-business” for his scorched-earth attempt to tighten oversight of the company’s theme park resort near Orlando. Last month, when Disney sued the governor and his allies for what it called “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” the company made clear that $17 billion in planned investment in Walt Disney World was on the line.
      “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said on an earnings-related conference call with analysts last week.
      On Thursday, Mr. Iger and Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, showed that they were not bluffing, pulling the plug on a nearly $1 billion office complex that was scheduled for construction in Orlando. It would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, with $120,000 as the average salary, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
      The project, known as the Lake Nona Town Center, was supposed to involve the relocation of more than 1,000 employees from Southern California, including most of a department known as Imagineering, which works with Disney’s movie studios to develop theme park attractions. Most of the affected employees complained bitterly about having to move — some quit — but Disney largely held firm, partly because of a Florida tax credit that would have allowed the company to recoup as much as $570 million over 20 years for building and occupying the complex.
      Another group of conservative lawmakers has issued demands in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations, specifically that congressional leaders include new measures to crack on migrants in whatever legislative compromise emerges.The letter to Joe Biden and the top Democrats and Republicans in Congress including Kevin McCarthy was signed by 57 Republican House lawmakers, and asks that they consider including provisions of the Secure the Border Act in their negotiations.“American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for the rapidly growing illegal immigration crisis. Thus, we support the inclusion of common-sense border security and immigration reforms in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling,” the congress members write.The bill, which passed with Republican votes in the House last month, would restart construction of Donald Trump’s border wall and increase Border Patrol funding, among other provisions. As is the case with much of what passes the House these days, Senate Democrats say they’ll oppose it.The far-right House Freedom Caucus wants Kevin McCarthy to stop negotiating with Democrats over raising the debt ceiling until the Senate passes the GOP’s Limit, Save, Grow Act.The legislation, which would cut spending, scrap Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and implement other conservative priorities while raising the debt limit only through next March, passed the House on a party line vote last month, but Senate Democrats have rejected it and the president has threatened a veto.The impasse led to this week’s decision by McCarthy and Biden to appoint negotiators to find an agreement both parties could support, but the Freedom Caucus – which includes several members that objected to McCarthy’s election as speaker of the House earlier this year – insists the Limit, Save, Grow Act should take priority.Here’s their letter:Amid continued focus on the health of the California senator Dianne Feinstein, who recently returned to Washington after a long absence with shingles, the New York Times reports that the 89-year-old, who has appeared frail and sometimes confused, continues to be the cause of much concern for her party:
      The grim tableau of her re-emergence on Capitol Hill laid bare a bleak reality known to virtually everyone who has come into contact with her in recent days: She was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function in a job that demands long days, near-constant engagement on an array of crucial policy issues and high-stakes decision-making.
      Ms Feinstein’s office declined to comment for this article beyond providing a statement from the senator: “I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis. I continue to work and get results for California.”
      The Times also notes the resurfacing of “questions about whether Ms Feinstein, who has announced she will retire when her term ends next year, is fit to continue serving even for that long”.Feinstein’s absence hamstrung Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, on which she sits. On Wednesday its chair, Dick Durbin, told CNN: “We’re happy to have her back. We’re monitoring her medical condition almost on a daily basis. Our staff is in touch with her staff.”Senior Democrats including the former House intelligence chair and impeachment lead Adam Schiff are running to succeed Feinstein but, the Times report says somewhat mordantly: “People close to her joke privately that perhaps when Ms Feinstein is dead, she will start to consider resigning.”Here’s more, from Arwa Mahdawi…At his press conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was asked by a reporter about concerns that his proposal to invoke the 14th amendment to address the debt ceiling would face legal challenges.“I think it’s the best solution we have,” Sanders replied. “It’s not perfect.”Sanders said he did not have any details about a potential debt ceiling deal between Joe Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy, but Democrats emphasized that any proposal with welfare cuts would not be tolerated.“If the bottom line is that the only deal to be had that McCarthy will sign on to is one in which ordinary families are savaged and in which the economy is flooded with fossil fuels, that is unacceptable,” said Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.Asked if he had spoken to the White House about his proposal to use the 14th amendment, Sanders said he had but declined to elaborate.Eleven Democratic senators have signed a letter calling on Joe Biden to invoke the 14th amendment of the constitution to address the debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default.Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and his co-signers held a press conference on Capitol Hill to make their case.Sanders noted the 14th amendment states that the public debt of the United States “shall not be questioned,” arguing the policy empowers Biden to unilaterally act on the debt ceiling.“[Republicans] have made it clear that they are prepared to hold our entire economy hostage unless the president gives in to all of their demands,” Sanders said.“Using the 14th amendment would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on time and without delay, prevent an economic catastrophe and prevent devastating cuts to some of the most vulnerable people in this country. It should be exercised.”Debt ceiling negotiations seem to be on track, at least if you ask Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy. Some Democrats aren’t so sure. In the Senate, 11 lawmakers say Joe Biden should consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment to prevent a default, rather than agreeing to GOP-devised spending cuts. And in the House, just about every Democrat has signed on to a discharge petition that would force a vote on raising the ceiling without preconditions. But it needs the defections of at least a few Republicans to succeed, and thus far, that support has not emerged.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Ron DeSantis is finally getting it over with: the Florida governor will announce his presidential bid next week, according to multiple reports.
      Progressive Democrats remain unhappy with the prospect of implementing new work requirements for government aid programs as part of a debt limit deal.
      CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was not happy with how her network handled the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
      Meanwhile in the House, Democrats are pushing forward with a parliamentary maneuver intended to force a vote on raising the debt ceiling without preconditions.The party had yesterday encouraged its lawmakers to sign a discharge petition filed in the chamber, and in an interview with MSNBC yesterday, House Democrat Brendan Boyle, who is leading the effort, said the document has so far received 210 signatures.It needs a majority of 218 signers to pass, and what Democrats are banking on here is that some Republicans will eventually come on board, perhaps moderates who are nervous about the prospect of the US economy defaulting, or rattled by the demands of the House GOP’s far-right members. But there hasn’t been any sign of those defections – yet.Here’s more from Boyle’s interview with MSNBC:Eleven Democratic senators have signed a letter to Joe Biden urging him to consider invoking the 14th amendment to prevent the United States from defaulting if the debt ceiling is not raised.The letter, which first became public yesterday, was signed by Democrats Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Mazie Hirono, Peter Welch, Richard Blumenthal, Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, John Fetterman and Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.“The choice we face is clear. We cannot reach a budget agreement that increases the suffering of millions of Americans who are already living in desperation,” the lawmakers write in the letter, which accuses Republicans of “not acting in good faith”.“We write to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states: ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned,’” the signatories conclude.“Using this authority would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on-time, without delay, preventing a global economic catastrophe.”Speaking of CNN, one of its best known anchors is apparently not a fan of how it handled last week’s town hall with Donald Trump, the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports: The CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour has strongly criticized her own network for hosting a town-hall event with Donald Trump last week, saying she had “a very robust exchange of views” with Chris Licht, the chief executive under fire for approving and then defending the decision to stage it.Amanpour, giving the commencement address at Columbia Journalism School in New York on Wednesday, said in comments reported by Variety: “We know Trump and his tendencies – everyone does. He just seizes the stage and dominates.“No matter how much flak the moderator tries to aim at the incoming, it doesn’t often work. I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person’, but then that’s me.”If Democrats and Republicans are indeed on the path to reaching an agreement to increase the debt ceiling, they’ll have to overcome the thorny issue of work requirements for anti-poverty programs.The GOP wants to tighten rules for recipients of aid such as SNAP or TANF to have to work, arguing that’s the best way out of poverty. A major government study released last year disputed this, while many Democrats, particularly progressives, say such requirements would be unacceptable to them.Here’s House Democrat Katie Porter saying so, in an interview with CNN:The Republican House speake,r Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol that he sees “the path” towards a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.Here’s video of the exchange, from CNN:Congress has till about 1 June to raise the US government’s legal limit on how much debt it can take on or face the prospect of a default. Republicans want Joe Biden and his allies to agree to cut spending, and also to scrap administration priorities such as the president’s plan to cancel some federal student debt.After months of refusing to negotiate, Biden agreed to appoint deputies to reach a deal with McCarthy’s team, and if the speaker’s comments are any indication, those talks are paying off.Ron DeSantis’s latest attempts to swing elections may have floundered, but he’s been more successful at getting lawmakers in Florida to react to his demands.As the Guardian’s Sam Levine reported earlier this week, his Republican allies, who control both the state Senate and House of Representatives, have approved laws that will allow DeSantis to remain governor while running for president, and also reduce scrutiny of his campaign financing.Here’s more from Sam’s story:
      DeSantis is poised to sign a bill that would exempt him from Florida’s “resign-to-run” law, so that he won’t have to give up his office in order to run for president. Under existing state law, if he were to run, DeSantis would have had to submit a resignation letter before Florida’s qualifying deadline this year and step down by inauguration day in 2025. Last month, Republicans in the state legislature passed a measure that says the restriction does not apply to those running for president or vice-president.
      The bill also imposes sweeping new voting restrictions in the state and will make it much harder for non-profits to do voter registration drives.
      “I can’t think of a better training ground than the state of Florida for a future potential commander-in-chief,” Tyler Sirois, a Republican state lawmaker, said when the bill was being debated.
      Some Democrats questioned why lawmakers would allow DeSantis to take his attention away from being governor. “Why are we signing off on allowing Ron DeSantis the ability to not do his job?” Angie Nixon, a legislator from Jacksonville, said last month.
      DeSantis also signed a bill last week that will shield records related to his travel from public view. The new law exempts all of DeSantis’s past and future travel from disclosure under Florida’s public records law, one of the most transparent in the US. It also exempts the state from having to disclose the names of people who meet with the governor at his office or mansion or travel with him, said Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, who has worked on transparency laws for more than three decades in the state.
      Republican lawmakers and DeSantis have cited security concerns to justify the law. But Democrats and transparency advocates have said it is a brazen effort to keep DeSantis’s travel secret.
      As Ron DeSantis gears up for a likely presidential bid, the rightwing Florida governor has suffered a few political blows in recent days in his state and beyond.On Tuesday, voters in Jacksonville, Florida elected their first female mayor, Donna Deegan, a Democrat who beat Republican Daniel Davis despite the endorsements of DeSantis and a handful of business leaders.“Love won tonight, and we made history,” Deegan said as she won the election.“We have a new day in Jacksonville because people chose unity over division – creating a broad coalition of people across the political spectrum that want a unified city,” she added.Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the Florida governor suffered another blow when Donald Trump-backed Daniel Cameron won against DeSantis-backed Kelly Craft in the state’s Republican primary.Cameron, the first major-party Black nominee for governor in Kentucky, will face off against Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear in November.Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that being called a “white supremacist” by New York representative Jamaal Bowman is equivalent to a person of color being called the “N-word.”On Wednesday, Greene and Bowman got into a shouting match on the Capitol steps with Bowman and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats who called for Republican New York representative George Santos’s resignation following his recent indictment on federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges.“Save the party!” Bowman yelled as Greene shouted, “Save the country!” At one point, Bowman told Greene, who has spread various conspiracy theories, “No more QAnon, no more MAGA, no more debt ceiling nonsense.”Minutes after, Greene pointed to her temple and said, “Hey let me tell you something Jamaal. Not very smart.”Addressing the interaction afterwards, Greene said:
      “I was swarmed. It’s all on video. Everyone can see this, but I will tell you what’s on video is Jamaal Bowman shouting at the top of his lungs, cursing calling me … horrible … calling me a white supremacist, which I take great offense to. That is like calling a person of color the n-word, which should never happen. Calling me a white supremacist is equal to that. And that is wrong.”
      Banking regulators testifying before the Senate banking committee on Thursday morning proposed a slew of recommendations that would strengthen regulation and supervision in light of Signature Bank and Silicone Valley Bank’s financial collapse.
      “The underlying issue was concern about insolvency … Stronger capital will guard against the risk that we may not fully appreciate today. And we’ll also reduce the costs of bank failures,” said Michael Barr, the second vice chair of the Federal Reserve for supervision.
      “In addition, we need to reconsider our prudential requirements. These include evaluating how we treat available for sale securities and our capital regulations, how we supervise and regulate a bank’s management of interest rate risk, how we supervise and regulate liquidity risk and how we oversee incentive compensation practices,” he added.
      “Supervision should intensify at the right pace as a bank grows in size or complexity. Once identified issues should be addressed more quickly both by the bank and by supervisors. Moreover, we need to ensure that we have a culture that empowers supervisors to act in the face of uncertainty,” he continued.
      Florida governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially launch his 2024 presidential bid, according to multiple reports citing sources familiar with the matter.One Republican source told CNN that the Republican governor will file candidacy paperwork next week with the Federal Election Commission and is set to make an official announcement in his home town of Dunedin, Florida, the following week.The reports follow DeSantis’s visit to Iowa last week where he participated in a public gathering hosted US House representative Randy Feenstra in the crucial early-voting stage. Prior to his visit, DeSantis rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from 37 Republican Iowa lawmakers, including senate president Amy Sinclair and house majority leader Matt Windschitl.“I think we need to restore sanity in this country,” DeSantis told a crowd of Iowa supporters last week, adding, “We must reject the culture of losing that has impacted our party in recent years. The time for excuses is over.”DeSantis’s comments appeared to be a subtle jab at Donald Trump, currently the Republican frontrunner who has repeatedly attacked his ex-ally and is currently leading in the polls. Should DeSantis enter the presidential race, he will become Trump’s chief challenger.In the past year, DeSantis has ramped up his “culture war” in Florida, from signing the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill into law to approving abortion bans after six weeks. Most recently, the rightwing governor signed a bill on Monday that defunds diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the state’s public colleges.Florida governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially launch his 2024 presidential bid, according to multiple reports citing sources familiar with the matter.One Republican source told CNN that the Republican governor will file candidacy paperwork next week with the Federal Election Commission and is set to make an official announcement in his home town of Dunedin, Florida, the following week.Earlier this week, reports emerged that DeSantis is poised to sign a bill that would modify a Florida law and allow him to run for president while serving as governor. The bill is also expected to impose new voting restrictions across Florida and will make it increasingly difficult for non-profits to conduct voter registration drives.Last Saturday, DeSantis rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from Iowa lawmakers and visited the crucial early-voting state in an attempt to garner support for his likely bid.Here are other developments in US politics:
      Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving senator, has prompted renewed scrutiny over her fitness to serve following her return to Capitol Hill after a months-long absence due to shingles.
      California representative Adam Schiff said he is “not backing down” in the face of a Republican-led effort to expel him from Congress.
      The Pentagon leaks suspect was warned repeatedly about his mishandling of classified material, according to prosecutors. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene claims white supremacist label is same as N-word

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      The far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters being called a white supremacist was the same as a Black person being called the N-word.Speaking on Thursday about a confrontation outside the Capitol the day before with the Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman, Greene said: “Jamaal Bowman [was] shouting at the top of his lungs, cursing, calling me a horrible … calling me a white supremacist which I take great offense to that.“It’s like calling a person of color the N-word which should never happen. Calling me a white supremacist is equal to that. That is wrong.”Greene, a Trump supporter from Georgia, has achieved viral fame – in large part by voicing conspiracy theories, addressing white supremacists, making bigoted statements and harassing opponents – which she has used to secure influence in the Republican caucus.In a Congress as bitterly divided as the country at large, Bowman, a progressive from New York, has made headlines by confronting far-right Republicans.The verbal tussle on Wednesday came after House Republicans deflected a Democratic motion to expel the federally indicted New York representative George Santos. As Santos spoke to reporters, Bowman called out that he should resign.Greene then squared off with Bowman, each talking over the other before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another New York progressive, told Bowman: “She ain’t worth it, bro.”Footage spread swiftly on social media.At the Capitol on Thursday, Greene said: “He was the one that approached me.”She also claimed Bowman was “yelling, shouting, raising his voice, he was aggressive. His physical mannerisms are aggressive … There’s a lot of concern about Jamaal Bowman, so I am concerned, I feel threatened by him.”Bowman did not immediately respond.Greene, a dedicated far-right firebrand, also claimed to be above partisan politics, because members of Congress should “care about the country … no matter what our political beliefs are”.At the same press conference, Greene announced that she had filed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden; the US attorney general, Merrick Garland; the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas; Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI; and Matthew Graves, US attorney for the District of Columbia. More

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      Schiff ‘not backing down’ in face of Republican bid to expel him from Congress

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      Adam Schiff said he was “not backing down”, after a Republican from Florida filed a motion to expel the California representative from Congress.Referring to the failure the same day of a motion to expel George Santos, the New York fabulist indicted on multiple criminal counts, Schiff said: “When Democrats do something for the right reason, [Republicans] use the precedent to do something for the wrong reason.”Ana Paulina Luna moved against Schiff after the release of the Durham report, which Republicans claim shows the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Donald Trump and Moscow was a conspiracy between Democrats and the FBI.Schiff was House intelligence chair and led Trump’s first impeachment, for seeking political dirt in Ukraine. He published a book about the Russia investigation and is now running for Senate.Luna said Schiff “lied to the American people. He used his position on House intelligence to push a lie that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars and abused the trust placed in him as chairman. He is a dishonour to the House of Representatives.“The Durham report makes clear that the Russian collusion was a lie from day one and Schiff knowingly used his position in an attempt to divide our country.”John Durham was appointed to investigate the FBI inquiry, which led to the appointment of the special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller did not establish collusion between Trump and Moscow but did secure criminal convictions and lay out evidence of potential obstruction of justice.Schiff said: “When Republicans lacked the courage to stand up to the most unethical president in history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did. I’m not backing down.”Speaking to MSNBC, he added: “The Durham investigation was an investigation Donald Trump demanded, investigating the investigators.”Durham, he said, spent “four years trying to prove this deep state conspiracy theory that Trump kept telling his base was going to be proven … The whole thing of course, was a big bust.“… And so their response … is, ‘Let’s go after Adam Schiff.’ Let’s go back to the person they most view as standing up for the rule of law, standing up against Trump, leading the first impeachment, participating in the January 6 committee. That’s what this is about.”Republicans have removed Schiff and another California Democrat, Eric Swalwell, from the intelligence committee.Only five members of the House have ever been expelled, three for fighting for the Confederacy in the US civil war. The other two were convicted criminals. Expulsions require two-thirds majorities. Luna’s resolution is likely to fail.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSchiff said: “When Democrats do something for the right reason, [Republicans] use the precedent to do something for the wrong reason.”“This serial fabricator George Santos, this person who’s just been indicted, who’s admitted guilt to a foreign crime, to distract attention from that in the wake of the added disappointment of the Durham report, let’s go after Adam Schiff, let’s please the Maga crowd and send a message to anyone else that stands up to Donald Trump.”Luna has experienced controversy of her own. In February, the Washington Post reported that she swapped liberal positions and claims to be “Middle Eastern, Jewish or eastern European” for a Hispanic identity and Trumpist beliefs.“Luna’s sharp turn to the right,” the paper said, “her account of an isolated and impoverished childhood, and her embrace of her Hispanic heritage have come as a surprise to some friends and family who knew her before her ascent to the US House.”Luna called the report “racist”. More