How many crises can arise under the watch of President Dementia? The border is out of control. Inflation is rising. Job creation is grinding to a halt. Our allies are infuriated over our Afghanistan exit. France has recalled its ambassador over a disagreement in a US-UK-Australia defense pact. And now, we’re about to run out of money. On September 30, the government’s operating budget expires. On top of that, we need to raise the debt ceiling as well. On that issue, we’ve been heading in this direction for weeks. We failed to raise the debt limit during the summer. We’ve been in what the Treasury calls “extraordinary measures” to meet the government’s obligation, but it only lasts two-to-three months. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says that the time to do so is approaching. She warned members of Congress last week (via Daily Caller):
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned congressional leaders Wednesday that the U.S. is on track to default on its debt sometime in October if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.
Yellen said the Treasury would likely run out of cash in the coming weeks and exhaust its “extraordinary” spending measures to keep the country within its legal borrowing limit.
“Once all available measures and cash on hand are fully exhausted, the United States of America would be unable to meet its obligations for the first time in our history,” Yellen wrote in a letter to Democratic and Republican leadership and the chairs and ranking members of several top committees.
“Given this uncertainty, the Treasury Department is not able to provide a specific estimate of how long the extraordinary measures will last,” she continued. “However, based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of October.”
Democrats don’t care about that right now. They want to get this $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill (aka ‘human infrastructure’) passed. They don’t have the votes. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) are “no” votes in the Senate where Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote. It’s dead. The progressive wing in the House has insisted the $3.5 trillion price tag was the compromise version. They’re also not backing passing the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill until the reconciliation passes. We’re spending trillions like candy and people wonder why inflation is spiking. Oh, and we’re at an impasse on which trillion-dollar bill passes first which I guess is a good sign. These bills are not good. The $1.2 trillion bipartisan package isn’t paid for, adding $256 billion in deficit spending. So, both bills suck but some version is going to pass. The only question is will it get done before the debt ceiling deadline comes due. And even then, I’ll bank on Democrats waiting to roll everything into a must-pass situation.