Government Funding, Debt Ceiling Suspension Bill OK’d by House

House Democrats passed a funding bill that also suspends the debt ceiling. It is almost certainly doomed in the Senate.


Summary

The House passed legislation Tuesday evening to fund the government past Oct. 1 and suspend the nation’s debt limit through next year.

  • It was a party-line vote, 220-211, with Democrats supporting the measure and Republicans opposing it. 
  • With an evenly divided Senate and the necessity to get 60 votes in the upper chamber, the bill is expected to “go down like a fat guy on a seesaw” according to Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. 
  • If the House and Senate cannot get a bill to the President’s desk by midnight Oct. 1, the government will shut down.

 

reporting from the left side of the aisle

 

  • CNN characterized the political maneuvering in the Senate as a game of chicken, with Democrats daring Republicans to “spark a shutdown” while acknowledging Dems have no “plan B.” 
  • Washington Post slyly phrased the fight as a result of Senate Republican intransigence, saying they were prepared for “grinding the country to a halt” “out of opposition to President Biden’s broader agenda.” 
  • The New York Times noted the text of the bill was “released only hours before the House vote.”

 

 


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© Dallas Gerber, 2021