Two numbers worth keeping in mind when assessing the US debt ceiling deal likely to be approved by the Senate this week are $4.8 trillion and $1 trillion. The first is the deficit reduction sought by Republican fiscal hawks over the next ten years. The second is the deficit reduction that the deal approved yesterday by the lower House will actually achieve. The hawks wanted spending cuts. They got some, but the big components of Biden’s domestic agenda, including entitlements, clean energy and EV subsidies and incentives for more US chip-making, remain intact. This was the second-most bipartisan debt ceiling vote of the modern debt ceiling madness era, surpassed only in 2017 when Democrats declined to make a fight of it. Biden showed he hasn’t lost his touch for congressional cajolery and hinted he may yet invoke the 14th Amendment to end debt ceiling showdowns. That would be smart in principle but probably impossible in practice.
Republican radicals underestimated Biden again in debt talks