Jan. 26, 2023: Why this debt ceiling showdown is different

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

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4.2 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With a catastrophic federal default potentially months away, Wall Street and the rest of America is reacting with a big yawn — and, honestly, can you blame them? The high-stakes debt standoffs of Barack Obama's presidency each ended with last-second deals that avoided economic calamity and saved face for all the principals involved. Washington went on to lift the debt limit four more times with minimal drama. So why are so many veterans of the first modern debt ceiling showdown freaking out? Across party lines and perspectives from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, those who lived through the 2011 showdown agree on one thing: This time feels different — and they are terrified that it will end with the country in financial ruin, as Eugene Daniels and Adam Cancryn report this morning. And Donald Trump can now return to Facebook and Instagram following a decision by Meta that will end the former president’s two-year suspension from the platforms. More from Rebecca Kern The view from Meta: “The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” Meta policy guru Nick Clegg said. Read Meta’s full blog announcement Politco tech reporter Rebecca Kern joins the show with more details. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Transcript

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0:00.0	Presented by Amazon.
0:02.0	Hey there, Playbookers.
0:04.0	I'm Ragumo Novalin.
0:06.0	Donald Trump gets the green light to return to Facebook, docu drama heads to Capitol Hill,
0:11.0	and why this battle over the dead ceiling feels different.
0:14.0	Here are the big things we're tracking on Thursday, January 26th.
0:19.0	On the surface, there are two big parallels between the battles over the debt ceiling
0:25.1	in the past and the present day.
0:27.9	One, House Republican leaders have promised their most conservative members that they put
0:33.2	restraints on a Democratic administration while struggling to keep the right wing of their party in check.
0:39.3	While two, a Democratic president is unsure if the Republican speaker has the clout to get his conference in line.
0:48.3	But look a little closer as veterans of the 2011 showdown have done, and you'll see stark differences.
0:56.2	One, this time, Republicans are preparing to stare down the White House without any clear
1:02.4	consensus about what they want in exchange for hiking the dead ceiling. Other than, of course,
1:09.4	making it as politically painful for President Joe Biden as
1:13.2	possible. Brendan Buck, aide to then-speaker John Boehner, had this to say, I wish I could look
1:19.5	at this, having been through a bunch of these, and say there's going to be a bunch of drama,
1:24.5	but this is how it gets resolved. But I don't know how this gets resolved.
1:29.1	There are just huge obstacles here that I don't think were quite as problematic in 2011.
1:35.4	Difference number two, there's a razor-thin GOP House majority and the administration
1:40.9	has little confidence that Speaker Kevin McCarthy has the influence to pull
1:45.7	his conference back from the brink, even if he wanted to.
	...

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