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On Saturday President Biden signed the legislation that was negotiated between the President and Speaker McCarthy.  The debt/budget deal was passed in time to avoid the crisis of a US Government default which Secretary Yellen said would occur on June 5. The politics of getting the bipartisan bill passed showed how Washington can work as the legislation passed both Chambers …

Late Thursday night the Senate followed the bipartisan lead of the House and passed the debt and budget deal that had been negotiated by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy. On Wednesday the House passed the bill on a vote of 314 to 117 and the Senate then acted on a vote of 63 to 36.  The average observer might ask: …

After intense negotiations between the White House and the House Speaker, an agreement was reached over the weekend that, if passed, would avoid a government default on US Government payments.  Last week Treasury Secretary Yellen told Congress that the X-Date for default was June 5. Now the tough part comes getting 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in …

Talks between the White House and the House Republicans were continuing as of Friday afternoon. While there have been reports of progress, no deal has been struck. The outlines of a deal have been discussed for a while and include some sort of budget cap for the next fiscal year, permitting reform for energy projects, and clawing back to the …

Washington continues to struggle to find a resolution of the debt ceiling, which threatens to cause a meltdown of financial markets if the United States doesn’t pay all its bills.  Last week witnessed on and off talks between House Republicans and the White House.  Friday morning the Republicans paused the talks for lack of progress, but then the negotiations were …

At noon on Friday, Republicans conducting the debt-ceiling negotiations with the White House announced that they had hit the “pause button,” stating they were frustrated with the positions taken by the White House team.  This follows a rise in optimism on Thursday when Speaker McCarthy told reporters he saw a pathway to a deal.  What happened? As I have been …

Obviously, there is one huge issue in DC – the debt ceiling.  Last week the President invited the bipartisan Congressional leadership to the White House for the first face to face meeting between Biden and McCarthy since February. While the meeting didn’t seem to move the needle, the leaders all agreed that their staff would meet to see if they …

The week started with the Congressional leadership going to the White House to meet with President Biden about the debt ceiling. While there was little visible progress, all sides agreed that their respective staffs would start to meet. It was initially announced that there would be a follow-up meeting at the White House on Friday. Staffs met at the Capitol …

The need to increase the debt ceiling has emerged as the top issue in DC.  The Congressional deadlock took on new urgency last week when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen surprised markets and political leaders when she put out a statement that the X-date for Treasury funding may be as early as June 1.  This leaves only three weeks for Washington …

Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen surprised markets and political leaders when she informed Congress that the X Date for Treasury funding may be as early as June 1.  This leaves only three weeks for Washington to find an exit strategy for the government hitting the statutory debt ceiling. Under Speaker McCarthy, the House Republicans were able to eke out …