Politics is often called the "art of the possible," but in a divided government where one side of the political debate insists on referring to his opponents as "MAGA FASCIST EXTREMISTS," well, there's not much that's really possible to achieve, is there?
And that's precisely what Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has been facing for the past several months as he tried, in vain, to have meaningful negotiations with Joe Biden, a man with no fundamental guiding political philosophy other than to demonize and destroy anyone who stands in the way of his political or financial fortunes. (Just ask the families of Robert Bork or Clarence Thomas about good old, kindly Uncle Joe.)
Depending on who you listen to in the Republican caucus of the House of Representatives, the debt ceiling compromise engineered is either a "turd-sandwich" (Rep. Chip Roy) or it's the largest single reduction in federal spending in American history (Rep. Dusty Johnson).
1st - the leadership playbook is to line up cheerleading on phone calls to demonstrate “unity.” 2nd, not 95% - I know of more no’s than that already. 3rd - they haven’t been educated yet on what a turd-sandwich this “deal” is. They will be. https://t.co/gaJhMT6LM3
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) May 28, 2023
Take your pick: An abomination that will bankrupt America or the second coming of the Reagan era. It's one or the other, but certainly not anything in between... we can't have that!
Of course, the deal is exactly that, something in between, and the advocates on both sides of the compromise debate would serve their argument well if they admitted just that.
McCarthy defied all the conventional wisdom in Washington by wrangling his Republicans into passing a stellar debt ceiling bill with meaningful cuts, work requirements, border/immigration reforms, and a roll-back of now-obsolete Covid pandemic funding.
Biden dared him to try to pass the bill, and he did just that. McCarthy's brilliant political gamesmanship put Biden on his heels, and he reneged on his stubborn insistence that there would be "no negotiation at all" on the debt ceiling issue. McCarthy forced him to the table, and that was a victory in and of itself.
Biden then took a blowtorch to the proceedings by continuing to demonize "MAGA Republicans" by falsely accusing them of cutting border protection and veterans' benefits while helping "wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders." Biden then threatened to invoke the Civil War-era 14th Amendment in a desperate attempt to flex his authoritarian impulses and circumvent Congress altogether.
In other words: McCarthy was negotiating with a lying, duplicitous Kamikaze who was more than willing to crash his jet into the nation's economy knowing the compliant national media would blame House Republicans even though they were the only political entity in DC acting responsibly and constitutionally in the past five months.
Anyone who tells you that Biden and his noxious cohorts would reasonably accommodate any real reforms in the federal budget at the end of this process is either lying or naive.
Biden doesn't care about a looming default, and he doesn't care about spending money our great-grandchildren don't have. Biden doesn't care about any political ramifications of a stalemate because he rightly anticipates every major newspaper and network taking his side and blaming McCarthy, Trump, DeSantis, or Reagan.
So, how do you practice the "art of the possible" when both sides aren't acting in good faith? How do you represent the majority in the House of Representatives when the president refuses to acknowledge the majority party as a legitimate political voice? How do you hang an "or else" over your counterpart's head in a negotiation when they have literally no fear of any fallout from the circumstances that may develop?
McCarthy recognized the situation he was in, and he probably got the best possible deal he could muster in a nearly impossible situation.
So, why doesn't he just say that?
Forget the "art of the possible." Let's try the "art of the plausible."
Be frank. Tell it like it is. Don't try to sell us that this is a great deal and we should be celebrating it. It's not, and we know it's not. Give Republican voters the respect we deserve.
McCarthy should hold a press conference and say this:
I was negotiating with an obstinate, reckless, semi-coherent authoritarian who has no respect for the constitutional role of Congress or the people's wishes from the 2022 midterms. He has no respect for the process and for voters who ripped the Speaker's gavel from the clutches of his party last November. He does nothing but insult Republicans and the Americans who voted us into the majority.
And yet, despite the impossibility of dealing with this selfish narcissist, we actually got a few things... not everything, but we got something. We maintained defense spending. We pulled back un-spent Covid relief money. We brought non-defense spending back to last year's levels, and we raised the debt ceiling until the months after the presidential election so that our Republican nominee can run on this issue and promise to fix this once and for all after they win in November.
This bill is not great... hell, it's not even good, but it's something, and it's a hell of a lot more than Biden ever intended on giving. Let's pass this thing, begin the budget and appropriations process for next fiscal year, and let's set this issue up as the top priority for our nominee in next year's election.
That would be an honest assessment of where we are right now... it's a plausible description of what we're dealing with. We'd appreciate plausible right about now. Stop telling us how this is the greatest anything in the history of any place because it's not.
It's also not a "turd sandwich."
It's a mediocre compromise that doesn't accomplish much but moves us forward to the next battle. And that's ok, for now.