EDITORIAL: Debt ceiling politics and the insanity of the Beltway

President Joe Biden beautifully — and obliviously — captured the insanity of the Beltway this week when he lambasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as “reckless” and “irresponsible” for refusing to kneel down on raising the debt ceiling.

What, if not “reckless” and “irresponsible,” do you call a president who — having passed himself off as a moderate in order to hoodwink voters — now proposes trillions and trillions in new spending intended to empower Washington central planners all while claiming, as the national debt soars past $28 trillion, that it won’t cost a dime? Living in the nation’s capital apparently requires a suspension of reality.

With Mr. Biden’s poll numbers collapsing and liberal Democrats squabbling with socialist Democrats, the president is frustrated. But why should Mr. McConnell play along on the debt kabuki theater when Democrats control Congress and the White House? The default setting for the Beltway media is to blame the GOP for every periodical debt limit showdown, but that’s a much more difficult sell with Democrats holding the levers of power.

Senate Democrats and Mr. Biden are irate that Republicans won’t let them raise the debt ceiling through ordinary legislation. Instead, Mr. McConnell has filibustered such an approach, insisting that the majority instead use the process known as budget “reconciliation,” under which raising the debt limit can be accomplished with 51 votes.

But this avenue is anathema to upper chamber Democrats because, under Senate rules, the GOP could make them cast uncomfortable votes on various amendments to the legislation. In addition, the process would force Democrats to “specify a new limit for the national debt,” notes William Galston of the Wall Street Journal. “The Republican attack ads write themselves.”

Late Wednesday, Mr. McConnell said Republicans would be willing to allow an expedited reconciliation process and to even let Democrats “use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December.” But some Democrats worry the offer might require them to use the reconciliation process later on.

The White House accuses the GOP of playing “Russian roulette” with the economy — as if Mr. Biden’s irresponsible spending agenda doesn’t accomplish that. But the fight over the debt is a fight over political leverage, and not every economist worries about a default disaster scenario. “There could be a point at which investors decide no way are we lending to the U.S. government,” economist Megan Greene, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, told marketplace.org in August. “But I think we’re a really long way off from that.”

In 2006, two Senate Democrats felt similarly and voted against raising the debt ceiling. Their names? Barack Obama and Joe Biden.