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On Balance | Mainstream Republicans choosing US debt ceiling deal over global economic chaos is a welcome sign of sanity
- Fears that far-right Republicans would keep the debt ceiling bill from coming to the floor and risk a default turned out to be overblown
- Instead, establishment Republicans worked with Democrats to secure a deal and pushed for provisions on how to keep supporting Ukraine
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Catastrophe averted? From the narrow perspective of global financial market stability, yes. Knowing that left-flank Democrats such as Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would almost certainly oppose the US debt ceiling deal that President Joe Biden struck with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republicans could have pushed the US and global economies off a cliff by sticking together.
They didn’t, though. This is an important development in the Republican intraparty war between those who have given up on the democratic values that Washington has tried to promote throughout the world and those still clinging to the Pax Americana vision of Ronald Reagan.
There were concerns that far-right Republicans on the House Rules Committee, where hardliners such as Texas’ Chip Roy were gifted seats in order for McCarthy to get the speaker’s gavel, would block the debt ceiling bill from coming to the floor. However, those were overblown.
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The bill passed easily in the House. While many Republicans who voted “yes” issued dire warnings about spending being out of control, one gripe in particular should give those backing Republican traditionalists hope: concern about how the Pentagon would support Ukraine’s efforts to halt Russia’s invasion.
“We have so many troubled areas of the world right now. And not just Ukraine, but China remains a growing threat that we have to address,” Politico quoted Republican Representative Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who leads the Armed Services subpanel that oversees nuclear weapons, as saying.
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In the Senate, Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and ranking Appropriations Committee Republican Susan Collins of Maine both warned about rising military threats posed by Beijing and Moscow.
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