From
CBS News with this headline:
“McConnell stops Schumer's latest attempt to raise
debt ceiling”
Events leading up to possible default on U.S. obligations to pay our bills: Democrats are trying to come up with another way to raise the debt limit after Republicans blocked their latest effort.
The U.S.is now heading toward default in just a few weeks, which could
have catastrophic economic consequences, government officials and economists
warned when Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen testified to the Senate.
DEM Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for
unanimous consent from the Senate to hold a vote to increase the debt limit
with just a simple majority of senators.
He argued Republicans have been insisting Democrats act
alone to raise the debt limit, so a unanimous consent vote fulfills that
demand.
But GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell objected — thus
forcing Democrats to try and come up with another plan.
Default means not paying our bills: Raising the debt limit allows the government to pay its debt obligations, (old) but not new spending.
While Republicans attempt to derail the Democrats'
$3.5 trillion reconciliation package, even without new spending, the debt will
continue to mount due to past legislation including the bi-partisan COVID
relief, as well as the Republican 2017 tax cut that greatly benefitted the top 1-2%.
Reconciliation: Reconciliation is a way
for Congress to enact legislation on taxes, spending, and the debt limit with
only a majority (51 votes, or 50 if the VP breaks a tie vote) in the Senate.
That would therefore avoid the threat
of a
filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome, and because Democrats have
50 seats in the Senate — plus a Democratic vice president — reconciliation is a
way to get a tax-and-spending bill to the president’s desk even if all 50
Republicans were to oppose it.
Since its first use in 1980, reconciliation has been used to enact 22 bills as of April 2021 (four others were passed but vetoed by the president), including such significant pieces of legislation as major deficit reduction bills in the 1980s and 1990s, welfare reform in 1996, the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, the Trump tax cuts in 2017, and the American Rescue Plan under Joe Biden.
It also played a big role in shaping the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. Republicans tried and failed to use reconciliation to repeal large parts that law in 2016 and 2017. President Obama vetoed the 2016 attempt; the “no” votes of three Republican senators blocked the 2017 effort.
How Reconciliation works: Congress is supposed to pass a blueprint for tax and spending bills called a budget resolution every year, though it doesn’t always do so. A budget resolution requires approval of a majority vote in the House and in the Senate (not 60 votes). The president plays no role.
The Congressional Budget Act permits the use of the reconciliation process only if the House and Senate first agree on a budget resolution that includes “reconciliation instructions,” that is, dollar targets for committees to raise or lower spending or revenues for a given fiscal year or a period of years.
Such resolutions do not detail what specific legislative changes a committee should adopt to meet its targets.
After the committees finish their work, the budget
committees in the House and Senate assemble the recommendations into a single
omnibus bill — the reconciliation bill.
In the House, as with any legislation, the majority rules.
In the Senate, a reconciliation bill requires only a majority. Once both
houses agree on this omnibus bill, it goes to the president to sign or veto.
How many Reconciliation Bills Can Congress Consideration in 2021: Under usual practice, two: one for fiscal year 2021 (which ends September 30, 2021) and another for fiscal year 2022 (which ends September 30, 2022).
Congress doesn’t pass a budget resolution
every year, and it didn’t pass one for fiscal year 2021 in the last Congress,
largely because there was little chance that the Republican majority in the
Senate could come to agreement with the Democratic majority in the House.
With Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, both houses moved quickly in early February to pass a budget resolution for fiscal year 2021. (VP Harris broke the tie vote).
The resolution cleared the path for a reconciliation bill that enacted President Biden’s $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan.
It extended
pandemic-related unemployment benefits, sent $1,400 per person checks to most households,
beefed up the public health system, sent aid to state and local governments,
and expanded the Child
Tax Credit.
The bill passed the Senate 50-49 (with one Republican not voting). Democrats may craft a second budget resolution (technically for fiscal year 2022) and a second reconciliation bill later this year, one that would include longer-run elements of Biden’s “Build Back Better” program, including investments in infrastructure and perhaps tax increases.
In April 2021, Senate Parliamentarian
Elizabeth MacDonough agreed with Senate Democrats that under the previously
obscure Section
304 of the Congressional Budget Act which states in part: “The Senate can
repeatedly revise the budget resolution for the current fiscal year to create
additional reconciliation bills.”
Thus, Democrats may invoke
that provision to avoid a filibuster on President Biden’s infrastructure and
corporate tax increase bill, the American Jobs Act, and get some version
through the Senate with 50 votes.
But the DEMS would need all 50 members on board – so I wonder: Is Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) (who BTW is stuck on stupid with this stunt and headline) paying attention?
“As Sinema resists the budget bill, she is set to
raise money from business groups that oppose it.”
Can Reconciliation Increase the
Budget Deficit:
A simple: Yes.
Related to this topic
is updated House movement status here
from CNBC with this headline:
“The House will
vote on a debt ceiling suspension that is doomed in the Senate”
The House will vote Wednesday (September 29) on a bill that
would suspend the U.S. debt ceiling as the country barrels toward a first-ever
default with no clear solution in sight as Democrats try to prevent two
potential crises this week: (1) A possible government shutdown, and (2) The
first-ever U.S. default on paying our bills and obligations.
Republicans (led by Minority Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as
expected will reject the legislation in the Senate saying they will not
support a debt limit increase or suspension.
My 2 Cents: Pretty simply
stated – Sen. Manchin and Sen. Sinema, both profess to be good Democrats, and
maybe they are, but on these critical issues and votes, I believe they are both
dead wrong.
In simple terms, the
voters gave the DEMS their majority to act for the public's good and these bills now pending are good.
Manchin and Sinema or
other DEMS can work for their kind of changes later. But now they are in the
majority to do things, NOT to block and act like a crazy Republican intent on
blocking good positive things just to
stay in power. Or running scared like the GOP minority “leader” (who wants to be
the majority leader in 2022 very badly) Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his pack
of GOP fools and road blockers simply bent on power and not much else.
Thanks for stopping by.
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