The biggest takeaway from the news that House Republicans narrowly passed a debt-limit bill this week is just how real the chance is that they will allow the nation to default for the first time in its history.
The bill is political theater. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his colleagues agreed to lift the debt ceiling to March 2024 — the middle of an election year — in exchange for sharp spending cuts and a slew of other GOP policy favorites, including clawing back IRS funding, putting more work requirements on welfare programs and rolling back green energy initiatives. In other words, House Republicans are saying that if Democrats give in on the majority of the GOP’s pet priorities, they will agree to lift the debt ceiling only until right before the next presidential election, when no one in Washington will want to compromise on another increase. This is recklessly unrealistic.
