America's Collision Course With The Debt Ceiling

Diane Rehm: On My Mind

WAMU 88.5

Artists And Thinkers Right Here As Diane Transitions This Podcast To Weekly Episodes That We’ll Be Calling “On My Mind.”, News, Writers, Fans Of The Diane Rehm Show Can Continue To Listen To Its Trademark Conversations With Newsmakers

4.7 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he will send lawmakers home for Memorial Day weekend, despite the fact no deal has been struck to raise the debt limit. This takes the country one step closer to what many describe as going over a fiscal cliff.

The Treasury Department estimates June 1 as the day when the U.S. government will run out of money, triggering potentially catastrophic economic effects. Norm Ornstein joins Diane to explain where the negotiations stand, what option President Biden might have to raise the debt ceiling without Republican support, and how this all could have been avoided in the first place.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I am very nervous about where we're heading with this and what the plan B is if they can't
0:17.1	reach a deal.
0:18.1	How Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he'll send lawmakers home for Memorial Day weekend despite
0:26.2	the fact no deal has been struck to raise the debt limit.
0:31.8	This takes the country one step closer to what many likened to going over a fiscal
0:38.1	plan.
0:39.1	The Treasury Department estimates June 1st as the day when the U.S. government will run
0:46.6	out of money triggering potentially catastrophic economic effects.
0:52.9	My guest Norm Ornstein explained to me where the negotiations stand.
0:59.3	The options Democrats might have to act unilaterally and why this time feels different from past
1:08.4	debt ceiling debates.
1:10.2	Norm Ornstein, it's Thursday morning at 11 o'clock.
1:21.7	Where do negotiations stand right now?
1:26.0	I think we'd have to say Diane that they are at a standstill.
1:30.7	We know that the White House has made a couple of offers to the Republicans in the House
1:39.9	including a freeze on spending for one year and probably they'd go for two years including
1:46.0	an ability to claw back a lot of the unspent funds from COVID.
1:52.4	Those have been rejected summarily by the Republican negotiators and what we don't know
1:59.0	is whether this is still a kind of negotiating ploy.
2:03.8	You and I have seen many instances in which as you get right to the 11th hour and almost
2:09.5	to the clock ticking Doomsday midnight that negotiations that seem to be going nowhere
2:18.0	end up being resolved.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WAMU 88.5, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WAMU 88.5 and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.