Republicans have put a debt-ceiling plan on the table. It is a modest plan as evidenced by this chart from Greg Ip’s piece in the Wall Street Journal (h/t to Chris Edwards):
Ip writes:
In fact, the combined effect of bills Mr. Biden has signed on infrastructure, veterans benefits, semiconductors and energy subsidies is to raise, not lower, budget deficits. Even his so-called Inflation Reduction Act might end up reducing the deficit by far less than advertised, if at all. The Congressional Budget Office projects federal spending will equal 23.7% of gross domestic product this fiscal year, well above the prepandemic 21% in 2019.
Even Noah Smith agrees that negotiation is needed as well as austerity. He writes:
That said, the Biden administration absolutely should be negotiating with Republicans over spending cuts. The fact that debt ceiling brinksmanship is bad isn’t a good reason to treat the GOP like terrorists; that might feel like it’s tougher and more principled than Obama was in 2011, but really it just compounds the impression that U.S. governance is shaky. In fact, the U.S. does need some major fiscal policy changes, and these should be done in a bipartisan manner. It’s time for austerity, and for austerity to have legitimacy, it needs to involve things the Democrats would like (tax increases) and things the Republicans would like (spending cuts).
The bottom line is that it is time for the Biden administration to come to the negotiating table. Not doing so would be irresponsible.