The DC Today -Thursday April 20, 2023

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3mP5Ad0

The talk is warming up for the debt ceiling debate to become a major market story for a time. As I was writing months ago, there is no leverage for the Republican House if they don’t first pass their own debt ceiling bill (essentially, a bill they actually pass with 218 or more votes that does raise the debt ceiling but gives House Republicans what they want by way of spending cuts). It is what John Boehner first did in 2011 that then forced the Obama administration to have to take a stance against it, and then ultimately pushed that stand-off to the point of the “sequester” where hundreds of billions of dollars came out of the deficit. In this case, I (a) Do not know if Speaker McCarthy will get his 218 votes, (b) Do know that the Biden administration will oppose whatever that is, and (c) Do not know what the twists and turns will be when they find themselves at their version of a “Boehner-Obama” stand-off. I only know this: Without “A” – there is no “B” or “C.” So we shall see if the House GOP can pass a bill and then take it from there. A debt ceiling lift that comes with the spending cuts they want does force the White House into a tougher political play (they can’t see the Republicans are forcing the government to default if the House has actually passed a bill to not do so). But these things have a way of moving and shaking quite a bit before we get to the end, and I can promise you media coverage of it all is going to be … unhelpful.

Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com