Good morning Playbookers. I'm Rogumonovalin. House GOP moderates face a debt-limit dilemma, plus what to expect from the latest CPI numbers.

Here are the big things we're watching on Tuesday, February 14th.

Just posted this morning from Politico's Calcini and Josh Gerstein, Pence to fight special counsel subpoena

on Trump's 2020 election denial.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is said to argue that his former role as president of the Senate

and therefore a member of the legislative branch shields him from certain Justice Department

demands.

Pence allies say he's covered by the constitutional provision that protects congressional

officials from legal proceedings related to their work, language known as the speech

or debate clause.

The clause, Pence allies say, legally binds federal prosecutors from compelling Pence to testify about the

central components of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation.

The biggest subplot of the slowest moving story in Washington, that is, the partisan

standoff over the federal debt ceiling, has so far centered on whether, absent a deal

between President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, moderate House Republicans might somehow

ban together with House Democrats to avoid a catastrophic default.

The speculation has gone far enough to prompt several explainers about how it all might go down, whether through

a discharge petition or other obscure house procedures that could allow a bipartisan coalition

to skirt conservative spending cut demands. It's gone so far, we're told, that McCarthy has,

in recent days, sent a message from Anhai to centris who've openly

toyed with the idea. You're killing my leverage with Biden. One person familiar with the

internal conversations summarized the leadership message to Playbook. Don't talk about a discharge

...