Joe Biden's uphill fight against the Limit, Save and Grow Act

Now that House Republicans have passed a bill that lifts the debt ceiling, something that Joe Biden betted against, Biden is thrust into a difficult position. Kim Strassel writes "Democrats will continue to demagogue the bill, but it’s a tough sell. Average Americans don’t see a problem with returning spending levels to those of two years ago, or clawing back money for a pandemic that is long over, or asking childless able-bodied adults to work a few hours in return for welfare. Especially in light of $31 trillion in debt."

That's just part of Biden's debt ceiling difficulties. That's because Speaker McCarthy didn't try using a top-down, John Boehner model. Strassel writes "Credit goes to leadership for the early realization that this bill would have to be bottom-up, not top-down. Credit goes to the heads of 'the five families', the ideologically diverse caucuses that make up the GOP majority—for choosing to keep the peace. Credit goes to (nearly) every member for choosing not to exploit a narrow majority to act as a king maker."

Thus far, Speaker McCarthy has been a leader, not a boss. There's a huge difference between the 2. A boss gives orders. A leader listens, solicits inputs, then makes a decision. Bosses are top-down specialists. Leaders are team-building, everyone's-involved specialists.

That's given Speaker McCarthy additional credibility with each of the 5 families. Meanwhile, Biden is peddling fear:

TRANSCRIPT:

BIDEN: Here's what's really dangerous. MAGA Republican congressmen threatening to default on the national debt, the debt that took 230 years to accumulate overall, unless, unless we do what they say. They say they're going to default unless I do all of these whacko notions they have. To default would be worse than being totally irresponsible. It would mean cuts in Social Security and Medicare, higher interest rates on things like credit cards, car loans and mortgages. Working people, middle class, seniors would pay the price for the economy would be at risk. America's never defaulted on its debt, which is accumulated over 200 years.

I hate having to say this but this president is a liar. He said that "MAGA Republican congressmen" are "threatening to default on the national debt." Wrong! Republicans are the only people who've put forward a plan that doesn't push us into default. Senate Democrats haven't put forward anything on the debt limit. Democrats haven't even had a committee hearing on avoiding defaulting on the debt. Biden's 'plan', if it can be called a plan, essentially says 'I spent like a drunken sailor, maxed out my credit card. Now I want you to approve me for another credit card to max out. No, I don't want to change my habits. I just demand that you get me a new credit card.'

Considering the fact that Biden's and the Democrats' profligate spending that produced the highest inflation since Jimmy Carter, which led to "higher interest rates on things like credit cards, car loans and mortgages" that hit "working people, middle class, seniors" the hardest, I wouldn't saying much about those topics. Then again, I'm not the liar that Joe Biden is. Most of the things that Biden insists that he's worried about are things that Democrats haven't lifted a finger to prevent.

It was the $1,900,000,000,000 ($1.9Trillion) American Rescue Plan and Biden's cutting of oil and natural gas production that sent inflation into orbit. That led to the Fed to raise interest rates.

If Joe doesn't like Speaker McCarthy's plan, he should submit a different plan. This time, though, it needs to be a serious plan. A clean debt ceiling bill isn't a serious proposal, not after the Democrats reckless spending spree that started in March, 2021. Ms. Strassel is right. The Limit, Save, Grow Act is pretty reasonable. Republicans won't get everything they want but neither will Democrats. Now that House Republicans passed their debt limit increase bill, it's time for Senate Democrats to prove that they can pass a sensible debt limit bill.