Presented by the American Petroleum Institute.

Hey there, Playbookers. It's Ragulman Ovalin. A couple things we're keeping our eye on today.

Thursday, January 19th. Politico's, Zachary Warmbraught, and Victoria Guida report this morning

that the so-called ex-state for Congress to raise the dead ceiling or risk's default will

probably approach sooner than expected.

That's thanks to the Biden administration's student debt repayment freeze and the Fed's

ongoing interest rate increases.

While the bipartisan policy center predicts the date could arrive in the middle of the year,

the prognosticating is more art than

science. Inflation and the upcoming tax filing season are outstanding variables. Still,

the predictions highlight the growing sense of urgency to tackle the dead ceiling sooner rather

than later. As the White House draws a hard line against dead limit talks, one person to keep an eye on

is Senator Joe Manchin. He's the one Democrat who so far has signaled he's willing to negotiate

with Republicans. Manchin said on Fox business yesterday that he's open to bipartisan work to tackle

the national debt. Manchin said he's spoken with Representative Kevin McCarthy about pairing an increase with

the legislation he's authored with Senator Mitt Romney that would create rescue committees

examining Medicare, Social Security, and other endangered government trust funds.

When it comes to Republicans, keep an eye on House Financials Chair Patrick McHenry.

Laura Davison, Eric Wassen, and Billy House from Bloomberg report that McHenry is broadly

trusted by both allies and opponents of McCarthy, and he has deep understanding of financial

markets.

He said last month he wanted to separate spending questions from raising the debt ceiling,

...