If Kevin McCarthy had his way, we’d be in deep trouble right now. In case you missed it, a bipartisan deal was struck between McCarthy and the Biden administration that will avert an international economic crisis, and allow the U.S. to pay the debts it is obligated to pay (and keep basic services like the National Weather Service up and running as a fun treat for us all). Now all that’s left is for it to be brought to the House floor, voted on, and then sent to the Senate for the same, and Biden can sign off as well.
Is it a perfect agreement? No. Democrats had to give up some ground (more on that in a moment) and that’s always bad for people Republicans’ sole goal increasingly seems to be to dismantle and cause mayhem. However, the alternative was far worse: a global recession and who knows what else.
This situation is all McCarthy’s fault. Raising the debt limit is a boring procedural vote that has happened dozens of times in the past 50 years. It gets politicized out of control when Republicans are in control of the House (the chamber that has to raise the limit) and there’s a Democratic president in the White House. Since this is a manufactured disaster entirely of McCarthy’s own design, he deserves none of the praise for averting catastrophe. You can’t set a house on fire and then get credit for putting it out, and that’s what McCarthy did. Any credit should be given to the Biden administration for doing the absolute bare minimum and being the grownups in the room. They at least recognized that Republicans were happy to steer the country off a cliff all in the name of partisanship.
Here’s how the agreement went down, per The Guardian:
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”.
In return for some concessions, the debt limit will be raised over the next two years, past the 2024 election, so we don’t have to go through this again next year. Per the above source:
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.
So let’s talk about the concessions, shall we? The two most ghoulish surround student loans and SNAP benefits.
The student loan concession is that everyone with a federally backed student loan will have to resume payments on their loans by the end of August—something the Biden administration was already planning on. Per The New York Times:
Promoting the debt ceiling legislation over the weekend, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on “Fox News Sunday” that it would end the pause on student loan payments “within 60 days of this being signed.”
In fact, the legislation would follow the same timeline that the Biden administration had previously outlined, ending the pause on payments on Aug. 30 at the latest.
So, yeah, while this sucks, it’s hardly a slap in the face. More like a reminder that Republicans like to be jackholes for no reason, and really want people to know they’re against the student loan pause. Well, OK. Point made, I guess?
The SNAP benefits concession is far crueler. Per CNBC:
Biden and McCarthy battled fiercely over imposing stricter work requirements on low-income Americans for being eligible for food and healthcare programs.
No changes were made to Medicaid in the deal, but the agreement would impose new work requirements on some low-income people who receive food assistance under the program known as SNAP up to age 54, instead of up to age 50.
Food is a fundamental right. The fact that Republicans feel you have to work in order to eat is f*cking bonkers to me. This is terrible and will lead to people going hungry because, unlike Republicans, I know you can’t just go to the job store and pick up a job magically. It’s disgusting, and once again reiterates that for Republican policies the cruelty is the point, a fact backed up by The White House. Per The New York Times:
It is unclear how the modifications would affect the overall number of food stamp beneficiaries or how much money, if any, it would save the federal government. The White House has said the changes will not significantly alter the number of people subject to requirements, suggesting a muted impact on government spending.
[…]
As part of the agreement, so-called able-bodied adults who are 54 and younger and do not have children must work or participate in a training program for at least 80 hours a month to receive food stamps for extended periods of time. Otherwise, they can receive benefits for only three months over a three-year period. Current work requirements apply to adults ages 49 and younger.
It’s not about government spending, it’s about making sure people suffer. Extending the age by five years is just a way to prolong suffering, especially as it’s pointed out, the age extension will have a low impact on government spending.
Here’s the reality of the situation: there was always going to have to be a terrible spending bill passed between the sadistic Republicans who control the House, the Biden administration, and the Democrat-controlled Senate. The debt ceiling crisis just moved up the timeline on it, to avert a projected June 5 default day. That doesn’t make the concession any less of a bitter pill to swallow, but as we all (should!) know, elections have consequences, and this is what happens when Republicans get the majority in a branch of our government. So while the concessions the Biden administration made suck, being the grownups in the room, having to negotiate with the other side that appears happy to let the national and global economy fall into disarray, is no easy task. They managed to negotiate a bill from a side that initially revoked student loan relief entirely, Per PBS:
The Republican bill would repeal actions taken by President Biden to waive $10,000 to $20,000 in debt for nearly all borrowers who took out student loans. The bill would also prohibit the administration’s efforts to cut monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans.
Additionally, they wanted to put work requirements for Medicaid coverage as well. Per PBS:
In addition, the bill would apply work requirements to able-bodied adults without dependents in Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health insurance coverage for low-income Americans. Job training and performing community service count toward fulfilling the work requirement.
[…]
A Congressional Budget Office review last year of work requirements for Medicaid recipients said Arkansas was the only state where a work requirement was imposed for more than a few months. It found many of the targeted adults lost their health insurance and employment did not appear to increase. It said that while evidence was scant, research indicated that many were unaware of the work requirement or found it too onerous to demonstrate compliance.
Again, the cruelty was always the point. Please, please, please remember this when the next election rolls around. One party wants to not make life actively worse for us all the time, and the other party is the Republicans.
(featured image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
