• Editor’s note: Yelm Blog readers know I have warned for months about a potential debt ceiling impasse and possible government shutdown again this Fall, as these issues became quite apparent last week with disarray between Congressional Republicans and The White House!

“GOP in disarray as budget impasse threatens shutdown, deep cuts — and default”

“GOP leaders have spent months cajoling President Trump in favor of a bipartisan budget deal that would fund the government and raise the limit on federal borrowing this fall, but their efforts have yet to produce a deal. And the uncertain path forward was underscored a few days ago at the Capitol, when a budget meeting between key Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and senior White House officials left out Democrats, whose votes will be imperative to avoid a shutdown and an economy-shaking breach of the federal debt limit,” by Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim, Washington Post. Read more

“Trump budget negotiators get Republican brushback”

“With Trump and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney at his side, acting budget chief Russ Vought repeatedly urged Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy to raise the debt ceiling without a broader agreement to lift stiff spending caps.

“McConnell, the Senate majority leader, was open to different ways to raise the debt ceiling and eager to avoid default. But he eventually grew tired of hearing from Vought.

“‘Listen buddy, we’re not doing a clean debt ceiling. Get a budget caps deal,’ McConnell said, according to people familiar with the conversation in April,” by Nancy Cook, Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan, Politico. Read more

“As deficit skyrockets, author of GOP tax bill admits cuts may not pay for themselves”

“Rep. Kevin Brady, who wrote the Republican tax bill of 2017, admits it’s “hard to know” whether cuts will work”

By Igor Derysh, Salon Magazine. Read more

“How Washington learned to love the deficit”

“William Hoagland has engaged in nearly every Washington budget-deficit battle for four decades. A longtime analyst and onetime senior Republican congressional budget aide, he brought a sensibility learned growing up on an Indiana farm: You’ve got to balance the books over time.

“He feels like a voice in the wilderness now,” by Kate Davidson and Jon Hilsenrath, The Wall Street Journal. Read more

• UPDATE: June 17, 2019

“Here Are Five New Takeaways From Trump’s ABC News Interview”

“From a coughing fit to a promised health-care plan and warm feelings about Kim Jong Un, a few new tidbits emerged from Sunday night’s full interview with George Stephanopoulos.”

” 2) Trump dismisses the rising national debt under his watch because Obama/Biden “doubled” it.” By Justin Baragona, Daily Beast.

Read more