re: #42 Dark_Falcon

They won’t, because avoiding default is too important. Considerations of blame aside, the president genuinely does not want a default and dismissing this proposal out of hand would raise the risk of that outcome.

Agreed. The Dems will take any clean debt ceiling extension (they’ve already said as much), because they actually care about the incremental, escalating damage the occurs as the deadline approaches, and if they refused a debt ceiling extension unless the government is reopened they’d essentially be joining the GOP in using the threat of default as leverage, reinforcing its future use as such. The Dems should absolutely continue to refuse broader budget negotiations as long as the shutdown continues though.

If the rumors about the House GOP attaching limits on Treasury powers to the debt ceiling bill are true though, that needs to be stripped out in the Senate.