Honest to God. I think he might actually be able to do it!!!!!

[Peacetrain]

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-congressional-leaders-likely-meet-222233210.html

Biden, congressional leaders likely to meet Tuesday for talks on raising the debt limit

The right has been howling about bringing down the country by not paying the bills we have already accrued and agreed to.. But Joe seems to have the ability to reach out to these people and bring them along the highway of some kind of reason.. and not go tripping off the cliff with someone like a Trump or DeSantis who just make it up as they go

I am starting to think Biden, might be the most engaged President I have seen in years.. Right up there with President Obama.. Clinton.. Carter..and maybe even better than them, because he understands the congress like no leader I have ever seen before..

Go go go Joe!!!

[CTyankee]

1. I wanna believe! I trust this good man!

[Peacetrain]

2. I do too!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Only takes a few Rs not running. And GOP can be hung out to dry if McCarthy doesn't bring it to vote

[Peacetrain]

4. I have a lightness in my soul today..

President Biden just keeps getting it done!!!

[CTyankee]

6. He has experience, he knows or figures out solutions, and he has great, smart staffers who can help.

And he's genuinely a good person. The republicans have no real leader, awful staff and don't know what they're doing.

[Peacetrain]

7. The world almost seems normal today!!

And it may only last a day.. but the past few years politically, pandemically, socially, spiritually (however defined) has seemed off kilter and we were destined for a head on trainwreck. I felt it yesterday too..https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217915380

I am going to enjoy the moment!!!!

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Here's where we are

Biden and the Dems won't default on the debt because it would harm the nation and cause pain and suffering to millions. Republicans couldn't care less about any of that, but they'll raise it to avoid being hurt politically.

That about sums up the country right now.

[viva la]

8. I sure hope there are 5-10 Republicans with enough self-interest...

they realize they too will lose money if the US credit collapses.

[wryter2000]

12. McConnell is for raising the limit

That has to be worth a lot in the Senate. I worry more about the House.

[halfulglas]

9. Probably the only other comparable Dem dealing with Congress in my lifetime was LBJ.

A creature of the Senate who most of the time genuinely respects it and the process. Most of the time he knows when to let them do their thing and when to engage with them. Other presidents often spin their wheels demanding things of Congress they cannot do. One of the drawbacks, of course, is he often doesn't get any credit for what was done and the public doesn't know what the good president has done.

[Beautiful Disaster]

10. There's likely to be a deal that results in compromise.

It's also likely to upset a lot of people on the left, maybe even here, who expected a clean vote without any budget preconditions.

But that was never going to happen. Republicans aren't going to raise the debt ceiling without getting something and Biden was never going to run the economy into the ground just to spite Republicans.

[pwb]

14. I don't see it that way.

Joe is going to win this debt fight. He will compromise on the budget but not the debt.

[Beautiful Disaster]

15. Oh I think it's all but guaranteed he'll make concessions on the debt.

I just don't know what all the concessions will be but I'd be absolutely floored if Biden got a clean vote on the debt ceiling.

Unless it was a temporary lift that lasts through October, when the budget debates begin.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/14/politics/debt-limit-talks-biden-republicans-cnntv/index.html

[pwb]

16. You think Joe will be the first eh?

Let us check back on your certainty. CNN sucks canal water.

[Beautiful Disaster]

18. I think there's no way in hell Republicans agree to just lift the debt ceiling.

That isn't going to happen beyond a temporary lifting that takes us to October so they can tie the debt ceiling to the 2024 budget.

But ain't no way they'll agree to just lift it with some promises that their cuts will be added to the budget discussions later this year.

[pwb]

24. I am still on Joe's team.

He knows all the plays.

[Jakes Progress]

28. Here are some numbers.

Biden only needs some republicans to vote the way their rich backers are telling them to. Rich people want a budget ceiling lift.

kevin has to appeal to only a half dozen of his crazies. He can't let there be a clean vote because of the deal he made with the satans of the House. He can be called to task and lose the position that is more important to him than his children by a single house member. mtg will have him on the dock in a second if this is brought to a floor vote. kevin has shown over and over that he doesn't care about anything else. He has no shame, no conscience, no reason to do the right thing. If he lets there be a vote, he will not be Speaker.

[Beautiful Disaster]

29. This is the problem. The people who are holding the economy hostage don't care.

This isn't the same Republican Party that we were dealing with in 2011. It's much worse. There's a significant minority who don't care about Wall Street or big money backing their campaigns. I promise you, MTG is not pulling in money from Wall Street. Neither is Matt Gaetz.

There is just not going to be a clean raising of the debt ceiling.

[Beautiful Disaster]

30. I'm sure he does.

He's not going to get a clean debt ceiling vote. It's just not going to happen.

It's not an indictment on him but the realities of the Republican Caucus. He will either have to compromise or risk default.

OR a third option, which I outlined, they temporarily raise the debt ceiling through October and then do this all over again by tying the debt ceiling to the 2024 budget.

[PAMod]

32. "just to spite Republicans"? WTF?

Interesting wording.

At any rate, scant chance the White House "compromises".

I wonder what the radicals would even accept as a "compromise".

I could see President Biden giving them a way to save face - promise talks on future spending, or some other vague and unrelated thing along those lines.

If there is no movement by the radicals, indications are that the Executive branch will just keep paying bills based on the 14th Amendment - which actually requires it.

If the House wants to sue him, so what? I'd love the hear what standing they have - how they are harmed (remember, the Congress appropriated the money - basically instructions on how it is to be spent.)

I guess they could shut down the government later or impeach somebody. Would that make a "compromise" likely?

[Beautiful Disaster]

37. Biden is not going to let the country plunge into a great depression.

People need to start bracing for a deal. It's likely to come. He's not going to invoke the 14th because he'll reach a deal.

[Skittles]

38. so what you are saying is

REPUKES are more than willing to plunge us into a great depression, while Biden most certainly is not. Got it.

[Beautiful Disaster]

40. Yup! Glad you get it. Unfortunately, I am sure a lot of people are going to be upset with Biden...

...because he will strike a deal with Republicans. There will be a compromise. He has to act because if he doesn't, the Republicans are perfectly content running the country into the ground and he won't allow that.

[Skittles]

41. and the "compromise" will in no way be to the advantage of WE THE PEOPLE

because repukes DON'T FUCKING CARE

[Beautiful Disaster]

42. I agree. it's going to suck.

[Demsrule86]

44. I don't think so. And using the 14th could work.

We can't give in to terrorists.

[Joinfortmill]

11. I'm with you.

[wryter2000]

13. I honestly think he's the best president since Roosevelt

No other president has had to deal with a congress full of hateful dingbats and still got things done.

[Jimvanhise]

17. REPUBLICANS NEVER MENTION WHAT RONALD REAGAN DID

Ronald Reagan raised the debt limit seven times in eight years because of all the spending the Republicans did during his administration.

[elleng]

19. Not jinxing by me making bets, but . . .

and he is no doubt the most engaged President we have seen in years.

[TrumanTheTiger]

20. Negotiations require both sides to act in good faith.

So, are Q leaders actually negotiating in good faith? For something good to result, they'd have to give up on something--anything!--which is anethema to their base. Since their base gets their jollies from cutting off their noses to spite their faces...um, I mean "owning the libs"...I might believe it if they come out with something legally binding (which they would then in turn challenge as not).

It also requires trusting the Empty Greens of the world to be honest, and since you'd have to fact check them if they said "water is wet"...

I have full confidence Bden can get things done with reasonable people, but Q leaders aren't reasonable and take their marching orders from their Furor who just said last week to default.

The Q/R congresscritters from Biden districts are the "gettable" ones, but their leaders? 🤔

[jmowreader]

21. The thing is...

President Biden doesn’t have to convince “the Republicans” to go along with a clean debt ceiling bill. He only has to convince seven or eight of them in each chamber to do it. Boebert, MTG, Tuberville and Cotton can safely be left behind.

[Beautiful Disaster]

31. I'd be surprised.

That assumes McCarthy is willing to bring a clean debt vote to the floor. He won't because he knows the second he does, he loses his Speakership due to the rules put in place earlier this year where he can essentially be recalled at any time. Boebert, MTG and Gaetz will move to strip him of it.

[pwb]

47. You are up to date on the other sides views

for sure? The fact that the debt limit has never been used for negotiation matters not eh?

[Beautiful Disaster]

49. It was used for negotiations in 2011.

And the Republican Party is far more extreme today than they were in 2011 when Obama cut a deal to raise the debt ceiling (oddly, it was Biden as VP who negotiated on behalf of the administration the cuts).

[NotVeryImportant]

22. Yooo Joe!

[img][/img]

[OMGWTF]

23. "If you don't like Joe Biden there is something wrong with you." -- Lindsay Graham (before TFG)

[housecat]

26. lol

[Blue Owl]

25. K&R

[DFW]

27. He understands Congress like other leader before him

Mainly, I suspect, because he was a member of Congress longer than any president before him.

He speaks the language of his opposition as well as they do, and that is why they have so much trouble trying to out-propagandize him. He see them coming around every corner 100 yards before they even GET to that corner, and he knows exactly which way they will turn, because he was once one of the ones making those same turns.

[honest.abe]

33. I don't think there will be a clean bill.

There has to be some sort of compromise to give McCarthy an out.

[Demsrule86]

45. No. Biden saw what happened with President Obama. And I don't think any bill would win the

Votes of the GOP suicide squad.

[honest.abe]

48. I dont think they need the votes of any of the extremist GOPers.

I think Biden just needs to convince McCarthy and a few "moderate" Republicans to make a deal. Apparently there is also a House provision known as a discharge petition that allows any member to bring legislation to the floor for a vote. In this case we wouldn't even need McCarthy.

[Freethinker65]

34. Republicans will get the work requirement for receiving aid for the able bodied

It will come with some form of job training and/or subsidy for hiring. The Republicans proposed the training and the Democrats will agree to that and actually have proposed it in the past. Republicans will keep most, if not all, of their unpaid for tax cuts to the wealthiest and corporations. Totally unfair, but a big enough win to get some votes.

[Demsrule86]

46. I am telling you...

Biden won't do it.

[maxsolomon]

35. There will be a lot of words but in the end it will be just like any other time.

Kick the can down the road.

[Thunderbeast]

36. Here is my un-informed prediction:

The house will recruit five to eight members in Biden districts to sign on to the discharge petition. These members will be taking a great risk in their primaries, but if they don't distance themselves from MAGA, they won't be re-elected anyway.

The bill will offer a symbolic conscession...probably a clawback of unspent Covid monies that are not contractually committed.

The FREEDOM CAUCUS will dig in on their crazy budget demands and focus on investigations and the culture war.

It will not end well for the GOP in 2024.

[Demsrule86]

39. There will be no deal on debt ceiling. It needs to raised.

[Aussie105]

43. Any room on Mt Rushmore for another face?

Yep, plenty of room on either side.

[IronLionZion]

50. Sometimes you have to handle congresspeople like dogs