The White House and Senate Democrats have so far operated on the assumption that Republicans were too disunited to be worth negotiating with. They convinced themselves of the bizarre notion that the GOP got everything it wanted by holding the nation’s credit rating “hostage” in 2011, and they were resolved to avoid making the same mistake again. But as I told NPR on Wednesday morning, voters in 2022 saw fit to hand control of the chamber from which all spending bills must originate to the GOP. That political reality would — indeed, must — compel Democrats to negotiate with their Republican counterparts on spending if McCarthy united his conference behind his plan. Still, Joe Biden’s party maintains that it is still unconvinced.

The party in control of the White House is ready to demagogue the Republican bill to death, according to Politico’s reporting. …

Will Democrats risk default merely to preserve the unspent funds American taxpayers devoted to an emergency that’s over, Republicans might ask? Do Democrats want to play chicken with America’s credit rating in defense of the orgy of spending on climate-related giveaways passed under the surreptitious guise that it somehow puts downward pressure on inflation? Is returning to last year’s discretionary spending levels such an apocalyptic prospect that the party in power would put the country’s finances at risk? If cutting spending in exchange for a debt ceiling hike is such an abdication of responsibility, why was that precise sequence of events routine for so many years leading up to this impasse?

[Noah hits the nail on the head. It was clear that Biden and Schumer counted on failure from McCarthy, which would then allow Schumer to push a debt-ceiling hike in the Senate and force McCarthy to take it up. Why Schumer didn’t try to head this off with a Senate bill first is something of a mystery, but that gamble just blew up in their faces. McCarthy got his bill passed, and now Biden and Schumer will have to explain why they’re willing to risk default rather than negotiate on its terms. Biden and Schumer continue to play checkers in a 3D-chess environment. — Ed]