Here’s How to Talk About Raising the Debt Ceiling
In the end, a deal will be struck. The question is how much damage is done in the meantime.
What took them so long?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Good news: President Joe Biden is finally talking to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders about raising the debt ceiling. The administration continues to insist that the borrowing limit be extended with no strings attached, but the president has budged, and rightly so. House Republicans will need to budge as well.
A deal can be done so long as both sides agree, first, that the fiscal outlook requires urgent attention and, second, that defaulting on the government’s obligations — a likely consequence of breaching the debt ceiling — should be out of the question. The needed compromise must acknowledge both truths.