President Joe Biden was caught off guard by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) success in getting a debt ceiling bill passed through the House, according to Politico.
The Limit, Save, Grow Act passed the House on Wednesday with no Democrat support. This legislation would lift the debt ceiling through early next year while saving the government an estimated $4.8 trillion over the next ten years.
On the other hand, Biden has repeatedly refused to negotiate with McCarthy and House Republicans on the debt limit. Instead, Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Biden want a “clean” debt ceiling increase, which means they want to raise it without the spending reductions House Republicans want.
Despite Democrats’ public statements that they are winning the messaging war over the debt ceiling issue, they have “private concerns over how this all ultimately ends — and what damage the standoff may do to a fragile, recovering economy that’s critical to Biden’s case for re-election,” Politico reported.
As Politico detailed:
In the aftermath of the vote, Biden allies and advisers privately acknowledged that there’s no clear endgame to the debt ceiling standoff — and that McCarthy’s victory makes it more difficult to convince moderate Republicans to back a clean debt ceiling increase for fear of economic disaster.
White House officials “remain nervous about how and when the standoff will end,” the outlet added.
Interestingly, McCarthy’s communications director, Mark Bednar, pointed out that Politico changed the headline of its initial report to make Biden appear more favorable.
The outlet first ran its story with the following headline: “White House regroups after McCarthy’s debt ceiling success stuns them.”
I knew there was a reason I took a screenshot of @politico’s original headline: pic.twitter.com/kkMSthgMeB
— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) April 28, 2023
However, the headline was later changed to: “White House regroups after McCarthy’s debt ceiling success.”
“When Politico removes ‘stuns them’ from their headline about House Republicans’ debt limit bill because no one can know the Biden White House would ever be caught off guard,” Bednar tweeted.
When Politico removes "stuns them" from their headline about House Republicans' debt limit bill because no one can know the Biden White House would ever be caught off guard.
Never ever. pic.twitter.com/pcFibBnvzB
— Mark Bednar (@MarkBednar) April 27, 2023
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
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