In the latest debt ceiling development as a potential default looms, President Joe Biden's White House aides are busy, not negotiating, but engaging in an entitled — and rather ungrateful — complaint campaign against the mainstream media's coverage of the president's handling of the debt limit and his role in negotiations.
According to Politico's West Wing Playbook this week, "Biden world believes the press corps is botching the coverage of the debt ceiling fight," likely because Biden backed himself into a corner by refusing to negotiate for more than two months and only agreed to negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after the lower chamber defied Democrat and mainstream pundit expectations and passed a plan to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default.
Cartoonishly desperate effort to work the refs from the left — who want the media to cover for Biden and his team completely fumbling the debt ceiling debate.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) May 23, 2023
The entitlement here should be far more embarrassing. https://t.co/YPQx9fuezF
More from Politico:
White House officials groan that reporters are not framing the debate as one in which Republicans are using the debt ceiling, and the possibility of economic catastrophe, to force policy concessions. They’re frustrated that the press corps isn’t calling out House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY for treating the idea that he’d stop the country from plunging into a recession as some sort of compromise. They say reporters aren’t making it clear that raising the debt limit does not equal authorizing new spending.
The White House's pretentious claim that its use of policies are purely for policy sake and have never attempted to bully lawmakers is unserious and laughable. Also, the American people put Republicans in the majority in the House in the 2022 midterms based, in part, on their pledge to rein in spending. McCarthy and House Republicans aren't using the debt ceiling to force policy concessions, they are — to borrow a line from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) — doing exactly what they said they'd do.
The mainstream media's coverage of the debt ceiling hasn't been made any easier by Karine Jean-Pierre's bizarre and contradictory claims, either. But the White House's whiny complaining also ignores the history of debt ceiling increases.
As Matt Whitlock pointed out in response to Politico's latest piece on palace intrigue (read: White House disarray), most of the previous 10 debt limit increases were paired with spending cuts supported by a majority of Americans:
Fundamentally unserious histrionics from @danpfeiffer.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) May 23, 2023
7 out of 10 of the last debt ceiling increases came with spending cuts and 65% of the country support them but to these clowns it’s a “radical faction using dangerous tactics.”
Imagine putting your name to that. pic.twitter.com/aFRnExrgOo
Maybe, just maybe, the White House is scared because poll after poll in recent weeks has shown Biden reaching new lows for overall approval and in polls of Americans' support for his economic and immigration policy. Independents have fled from Biden in droves since he took office, and even Democrats say the country is on the wrong track despite their party controlling two-thirds of Washington politics.
It seems perhaps West Wing aides should be more appreciative for what the mainstream media did to get them their jobs. After all, it was the mainstream media who limped Joe Biden to the White House in 2020, covering for the Biden family by censoring and dispelling Hunter's laptop from hell, allowing Biden to hide in his basement without serious scrutiny, and running every story under the sun — whether credible or not — to take down Donald Trump.