Apr. 3, 2023: Centrist Dems' secret plan for the debt ceiling

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Government, Politics

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

A group of House Democrats is secretly crafting a fallback plan to avoid an economy-rattling debt default. The White House wants no part of it. Moderate Democrats in the Problem Solvers' Caucus have spent weeks constructing a break-glass deal with centrist Republicans in case the country goes all the way to the brink on the debt ceiling. As the summertime deadline for action approaches, they’re worried a prolonged standoff could lead to fiscal disaster. Congress editor Elana Schor talks with Playbook editor Mike DeBonis about the plan and what she's watching for.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning, Playbookers. I'm Mike DeBonis. It's Monday, April 3rd. So the big thing today,
0:05.8	I'm totally obsessed with. Obviously, tomorrow, Donald Trump is expected to present himself in Manhattan
0:12.1	to face charges from District Attorney Elvin Bragg on the hush money allegations dating back to 2016.
0:19.9	And, you know, Tuesday's the big day.
0:21.9	We still have another day, but we at Playbook are already planning on how to capture this
0:27.8	really incredible moment in political history where, you know, the big question is, what is
0:33.3	the scene tomorrow in New York going to look like?
0:36.1	Are we going to have, you to have big protests? Is it just
0:39.5	going to be just sort of this media circus? Or is it potentially going to be something much more
0:44.0	sinister where potentially you have protesters, you know, showing up, you know, shouting at each
0:50.2	other or potentially even worse? The other thing we're looking at is, you know, we've had lots of commentary since the news
0:57.8	broke on Thursday that this indictment was forthcoming, and we've had lots of commentary
1:03.9	about what it will mean and, you know, what it means for Trump, what it means for Alvin
1:10.0	Bragg, what it means for the 2024 presidential it means for Alvin Bragg, what it means for the
1:11.0	2024 presidential race. What we haven't seen are the actual charges that the grand jury
1:16.8	has brought. And we are standing by waiting to see what the DA will show in terms of evidence.
1:23.7	And, you know, we're ready to really dig in to these documents once they hit the court docket.
1:28.6	The other thing we have our eyes on is the debt limit.
1:31.5	There hasn't been a lot of outward progress on the issue over the past few weeks,
1:36.9	but our Congress team has come up with a really interesting peek at what's going on behind the curtain.
1:43.0	And we have Alana Shore our Congress, Queen Bee, on the line to take us through it. I love it. The Congress Queen, as it were. Alana, how are you? I'm good. I'm casting a car alarm in my neighborhood, but excited to talk to you, as always. It could be worse, car alarm, you know, that beats other things you could be hearing. It's now April.
2:09.3	We're now potentially as little as a month or two from the infamous ex-state when the debt limit is going to hit.
	...

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