August 05, 2021: Schumer double dares McConnell on the debt ceiling
Chuck Schumer is about to double-dog dare Mitch McConnell and his members to vote against a debt ceiling increase this fall. Just weeks after the minority leader implored his counterpart to tack a debt ceiling increase on to their party\u2019s massive reconciliation bill \u2014 lifting the $28 trillion borrowing cap without any GOP votes \u2014 Schumer instead is maneuvering to make Republicans squirm.\nThe tentative plan: Tack the debt-ceiling hike on to a short-term funding bill designed to avert a government shutdown at the end of September, a move that would require GOP support. The Democratic leader is, in short, betting the GOP will cave rather than risk the blame for destabilizing an already shaky economy.\xa0\nAnd during the 2020 primary season, we had countless conversations with Biden campaign officials who warned that it was crucial to separate the social media conversation about Democratic politics from the conversations happening offline in early states.\xa0\nIt became a cliche to say that Biden\u2019s unofficial campaign slogan was \u201cTwitter isn\u2019t real life.\u201d While Biden and Bernie haven\u2019t been very far apart on policy, old electoral divisions have repeatedly resurfaced in campaigns this year, and we\u2019ve been having a familiar conversation with folks in Biden world recently.\nRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.\xa0Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.