Like everyone who understands the potentially dire consequences of the United States of America defaulting on its debt, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut is relieved that a debt deal was struck that makes the situation unlikely.
But that doesn’t mean Murphy is pleased. Asked whether the last-minute deal worked out by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled a new age of bipartisan cooperation — and in turn a bright future for a functional government that could work around polarizing factions — Murphy essentially said: Fat Chance.
Providing a conflagratory analogy, Murphy described the intransigent Republicans led by McCarthy as would-be arsonists, who needed to be placated not to commit a criminal outrage against the country itself.
“If your neighbor threatens to burn your house down,” Murphy said, “and he doesn’t only because you pay him a ransom, that doesn’t predict a new era of good neighborly relations.”
I just got asked by a reporter if this deal is a good sign for future bipartisanship.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 31, 2023
My answer: “If your neighbor threatens to burn your house down, and he doesn’t only because you pay him a ransom, that doesn’t predict a new era of good neighborly relations”.
Arsonist is not a friendly descriptor, but it wasn’t the harshest: Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called out the same MAGA contingent for using “terrorism” as its negotiating strategy. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse called McCarthy a man holding a “hand-grenade.”
The long drama over the raising of the debt ceiling saw McCarthy and an emboldened GOP-led House of Representatives use the debt ceiling as a “negotiating wedge,” to use former President Donald Trump‘s term, with McCarthy employing a strategy that even Trump said should “never” be done.
President Trump on the debt ceiling: "I said, I remember, to Sen. Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, 'Would anyone ever use that to negotiate with?' They said 'absolutely not.' That's a sacred element of our country. They can't use the debt ceiling to negotiate." pic.twitter.com/WvI6j4nqMQ
— The Hill (@thehill) July 19, 2019
In Trump’s case he said he, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi were all in agreement on the matter, which gives an idea of the magnitude — the three have had very few publicly acknowledged points of agreement.
