Mitch McConnell Caved to Democrats Now So He Can Screw Them Later - Vanity Fair

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Reportedly worried that Democrats would change the filibuster if the U.S. seemed likely to default on its loans, McConnell gave his blessing to extend the debt ceiling. Which means that, down the line, he’ll still be able to use the procedure to his advantage. 

By Eric Lutz

October 7, 2021

The pressure Democrats have put on Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to change the filibuster may be working. Not on Manchin and Sinema, who seem as defiant as ever, but on Mitch McConnell, who seems a little more willing to give up ground in the GOP’s debt ceiling fight to preserve his ability to obstruct on other issues. With less than two weeks until the country is due to default, McConnell on Wednesday indicated he would allow a short-term increase in the debt ceiling to go forward—a response, per CNN’s Manu Raju, to fears that the threat of financial catastrophe might be enough to get even Manchin and Sinema to consider changes to the filibuster.

Republicans have been recklessly pushing the United States to the brink of default for weeks, insisting that Democrats raise the debt limit unilaterally through a complicated reconciliation process. McConnell’s potential retreat doesn’t change that. In allowing a vote, the Senate Minority Leader insisted that his offer was only good for the immediate, short-term increase, and that a long-term increase of the borrowing cap would need to go through reconciliation. “This will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created,” McConnell said in a statement on Wednesday, “and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation.”

Even so, a short-term win is still a win. “Around here, two month is a lifetime,” Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Budget Committee, told the New York Times. “There would have been global economic collapse if in fact the wealthiest nation on earth did not pay its debts...We’re going to pay our debts. We have two months to figure it out.”

That’ll be easier said than done. Democrats still oppose letting McConnell set the terms on the debt ceiling. President Joe Biden called reconciliation an “incredibly complicated, cumbersome process” in remarks to the press earlier this week, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described it as “risky.” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told reporters that it “will be the new normal” if McConnell gets his way. “That’s a recipe for long-term disaster,” Murphy said. But McConnell seems determined to restart the game of chicken in December, around the same time that lawmakers will likely be scrambling to avert a government shutdown. Democrats may be able to “figure it out” in the two months between now and then, but they’ll have their hands full. Once they pull the U.S. back from the brink of an October 18 default deadline, they’ll be turning back to infrastructure, which is currently being held up by Manchin and Sinema over opposition to the House reconciliation bill funding social and climate programs.

Those two conservative Democrats have had an outsize influence on their own party, which holds narrow majorities on Capitol Hill. But McConnell’s calculated concession gives a glimpse into the influence the pair have on Republicans, too. As Politico reported, McConnell consulted with Manchin and Sinema on his short term debt ceiling offer and has urged his ranks to be nice to the pair, given that they may be all that stands between Democrats and substantive changes to the filibuster. Neither has given any indication that they’ll bend to increasingly loud demands from their party to reform the Senate procedure, even if it means financial disaster. But McConnell, seeking to preserve his power to obstruct on voting rights and other, more important issues, perhaps doesn’t want to take any chances. “It’s bullshit,” Senator Mazie Hirono told Politico of McConnell’s posturing. “That’s what it is.”

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