Both President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are dealing with twitchy flanks on the left and right, respectively, about the debt ceiling deal they cut in recent days.
But with a vote looming to avoid a potentially catastrophic default, they’re handling it very differently — in ways that reflect just how unwieldy and contrarian the Republican Party of today has become.
For days, McCarthy (R-Calif.) has effectively been arguing that he rolled Biden, forcing him into major concessions on spending and delivering the Republican Party a win. “President Biden claimed he’d never negotiate. Leader Schumer insisted there’d be a ‘clean’ debt increase,” McCarthy tweeted Saturday. “They were wrong.”
But in a stark contrast, Biden on Monday declined to even say who had gotten the better deal; he has merely called it a “bipartisan deal” and “good news for the American people.”
And he said there was a reason for that.
“Look, one of the things that I hear some of you guys saying is, ‘Why doesn’t Biden say what a good deal it is?’” Biden said on the South Lawn of the White House. “Why would Biden say what a good deal it is before the vote? You think that’s going to help me get it passed? No. That’s why you guys don’t bargain very well.
“How about if this was a 100 percent deal for the Democrats? … Do you think it would help me get it passed? Come on.”
In other words: If Biden says this is a good deal for Democrats, Republicans will vote against it. But that calculation apparently doesn’t apply in the reverse.
This is, to some degree, about the fact that Republicans are the majority party in the House. They have slightly more votes in the full chamber, and their control of the House Rules Committee looms large.
But it also reflects the reality of the modern Republican Party, which has become defined by an owning-the-libs mentality in which what is good for the donkey can’t also be good for the elephant. Or at least, the elephant will regard anything the donkey hails as being reason for skepticism.
You also see this reflected in the presidential race, in which the top two GOP candidates are vying for who will be the worst enemy of the left. Donald Trump has made clear that his campaign is largely about “retribution” against his and his allies’ enemies. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has in recent days taken to arguing not so much that he would be a good president cutting great deals, but that he would “destroy leftism.”
Asked Monday on Fox News why now was the time to run for president, DeSantis responded: “Because everyone knows if I’m the nominee, I will beat Biden, I will serve two terms, and I will be able to destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology on the dustbin of history.”
It’s one thing for this to be our political reality, but it’s another for it to be displayed as starkly as it was over the weekend.
Biden has a vested interest in signaling that he didn’t get the short end of the stick — particularly after he backed off his initial no-negotiating posture — but he won’t even call the deal a win. And he apparently doesn’t fear that this indirect approach will turn off the left too much. McCarthy, by contrast, is trying to assure those on his right flank that he owned the libs, without much evidence that it’s alienating congressional liberals.
But there are downstream effects. Even if the Biden and McCarthy tactics are just acknowledging our current reality, their respective approaches can’t help but reinforce and bolster it. The House Freedom Caucus has amassed a great deal of influence in the congressional GOP because it has shown a willingness to stand in the way of things, including electing McCarthy as speaker. Whether this deal is a win for either side is up for debate, but it shows that everyone involved is now effectively catering to it — including, remarkably, Democrats.