McCarthy Caved?
Debt Deal; TX AG Paxton Impeached; Secession?
Debt Ceiling Agreement
The details of the agreement between President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy are still to come but the biggest sticking point to sell it to the Republican base will be the item that will raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. The bill the Republican House had passed earlier raised it $1.5 trillion but with restrictions on budget growth.
The agreement has to pass both houses, including the Rules Committee in the House. The membership on the Rules Committee was one of the key negotiation issues when 20 GOP Congresspersons initially refused to support McCarthy as Speaker. Committee member Chip Roy tweeted that reminder on Monday possibly signaling a hurdle to passing the bill and reflecting dissatisfaction that budget hawks have with the agreement. Otherwise, the bill may pass with bi-partisan support.
Without an agreement, the US Government would be unable to pay all of its bills sometime around June 5th, per Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s latest remarks. That does not mean that the Government will default but it may prioritize payments and delay some others.
Texas AG Paxton Impeached
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas was impeached on Saturday by a vote of 121-23 in a Republican controlled House. He is required to step down from office until his trial in the Senate. A 2/3rds vote in the Senate would remove him from office.
Paxton was recently re-elected by a solid 10 point margin. However, a report of various allegations of bribery, abuse of power and other misdeeds led to the filing of 20 articles of impeachment.
Paxton called the proceedings ‘political theater’. Paxton supporters note that Paxton has been the most aggressive Attorney General against the Biden Administration including the filing in 2021 of a lawsuit with the Supreme Court challenging how the 2020 election was conducted in certain swing states. President Trump also called out Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott for being silent on the issue.
Soft Secession Already Happening
52% of Trump voters and 40% of Biden voters have endorsed various forms of secession in recent years. There has been a great movement of people into states more aligned with their political views. The Author of the article has studied secession for 20 years and points out that ‘soft separation’ precedes ‘hard secession’ and provides several examples from local safe zones where state or federal law is unenforced to challenging special taxing districts (like Disney World).
Nicely summarized! Thank you.