December 7, 2021
We may have a break through on avoiding a debt ceiling crisis next week.
There is a very complicated deal between Senate Democrat & Republican leadership to avoid the United States defaulting on its debt on or around December 15th. But I’m going to warn you – there are a lot of moving parts here.
First – what’s happening.
If you’ve been following me you know the US Congress is responsible for passing legislation and paying the bills they incur. One of the ways they’ve been paying those bills since the early 1900s is by raising or suspending the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is *not* an authorization of any *new* spending. By raising or suspending the debt ceiling congress gives the treasury department the tools it needs to pay the bills we already incurred over the course of several presidents.
Now – to today’s proposed deal.
Senate leadership from both parties have suggested passing a new law that would allow a fast-tracked process to vote on a separate bill to raise the debt ceiling with just 51 votes – one – time – only.
So this is where it gets complicated. If they can get some consensus, there would be two very big votes and a lot of *ifs*.
First, a new law would have to pass both the House and Senate saying – for this time only – a debt ceiling legislation can pass with a simple majority in the senate. This law would need 60 votes. That means all Democrats and Independents plus 10 Republicans have to say yes.
Second, if they get those 60 votes and law is passed, the Democrats have to get all Democrats and Independents to say yes to raising the debt ceiling by a specific amount. With the vice President being the 51st vote since the Republican leadership has said since the summer – there is zero support for raising the debt ceiling. Even though the debt ceiling legislation has always been passed on a bipartisan basis.
The house is already moving on this one-time-only legislation. I’ll keep you posted.
PLUS
The President’s mandate for federal *contractors* to be vaccinated by January 4th has now been temporarily put on pause *nationwide*.
This is a result of a ruling from a Federal District court judge in Georgia who issued a preliminary injunction as the case continues to play out. That case was brought against the federal government by seven states including Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia. (Arizona, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma have their own lawsuit)
Today’s ruling expands on the ruling that I told you about last week in this video where a different federal judge in Kentucky also issued a preliminary injunction to pause the very same federal contractor vaccine mandate in only three states (Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio). Today’s ruling from the judge in Georgia expands that temporary pause to the whole country. The judge says he did that as to avoid “confusion.”
This is important for you to understand – none of this is over. And just because one vaccine mandate is either stopped or paused, doesn’t mean all of them are stopped or paused. They are all separate and are all moving through the court system on their own paths.
And it’s also worth noting, the white house continues to say that it will vigorously defend the President’s vaccine mandates.
Read the Georgia Judge’s order here.
