Senate passes debt limit bill; IRS funding to be cut by more than $20 billion

Washington Times ^ | 06/02/2023 | Haris Alic and Ramsey Touchberry

[SeekAndFind]

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer pushed through legislation on Thursday waiving the nation’s debt limit until January 2025, overcoming obstacles put up by defense hawks, deficit hardliners, and even environmentalist Democrats.

Late in the evening, the Senate comfortably passed the debt limit deal struck by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, mostly doing so with Democratic votes.

The 63-36 vote came only days before the June 5 deadline by which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned the debt limit must be raised to avert a first-ever default on the nation’s ability to pay its debts.

“America can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat. “For all the ups and downs and twists and turns it took to get here, it is so good for this country that both parties have come together at last to avoid default.”

The legislation now heads to Mr. Biden’s desk for his promised signature.

The bill made its way through the upper chamber with votes from Mr. Schumer’s ranks, and mostly Republicans in dissent. GOP senators voted 31-17 against the bill, while 46 of the Senate’s 51 Democrats backed the legislation.

The five Democratic Caucus dissidents were Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

Its passage marks the end of a nearly six-month stand-off between the president and House Republicans.

Mr. Biden initially refused to negotiate on raising the debt ceiling in the face of Republican calls for spending cuts. The position held for over 100 days, but the White House relented once a hard deadline had been set by the Treasury Department.

The agreement hatched by Mr. Biden and Mr. McCarthy would waive the $31.4 trillion debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election

[SeekAndFind]

The bill would also claw back billions of dollars in unspent pandemic relief and cut IRS funding by more than $20 billion over two years.

Mr. Biden secured a win by keeping domestic spending flat for the upcoming fiscal year in the face of GOP calls for at least $130 billion in immediate cuts. Both sides found bipartisan agreement on boosting defense spending by more than $26 billion.

[ConservativeInPA]

It takes two writers at the Washington Times to put lipstick on a pig.

[adorno]

I’m not getting it.

Is the IRS funding cut against the current IRS budget, or against the budget that included adding 87,000 IRS agents to the agency?

[piasa]

I doubt if it is truly cut. Usually by this politicians merely mean a cut in the rate of increase, in other words, theirony budget still grows every year.

[17th Miss Regt]

The latter case...

[Bernard]

So the current national debt is $32 Trillion, and now all Congress and Biden have to do is not run the national debt up more than $36 Trillion by January, 2025. That's about $4 Trillion in 19 months.

Everybody who voted for this, or supports it, should be required to sign over all of their assets and savings, and live on credit card debt only. I wonder which network news show will present the results this way.

[griswold3]

Here’s your daily US Treasury Statement
https://fsapps.fiscal.treasury.gov/dts/files/23053100.pdf

2022 United States federal budget – $6.3 trillion (submitted 2021 by President Biden) (Democrat Congress)
2021 United States federal budget – $6.8 trillion (submitted 2020 by President Trump) (Democrat Congress)
2020 United States federal budget – $6.5 trillion (submitted 2019 by President Trump) (Democrat Congress)
2019 United States federal budget – $4.4 trillion (submitted 2018 by President Trump) (Republican Congress)

$6.3T!!?? We’re Toast!

[adorno]

The latter case...

Then, that makes it a cut of an increase, which means that the IRS budget didn't really get cut but got increased, bottom line.

[JonPreston]

I support all bills and measures that bring us closer to global, economic collapse. This bill is on the right track.

[mikelets456]

So they cut the funding that was going to the 87,000 IRS agents?

[TexasGator]

“The latter case...”

Actually:

The IRS Was already allocated the $80b over 10 years.

This bill cuts about $1.7b. Not in the bill but agreed to by all is to repurpose $20b away frOM the IRS in 2024/2025.

[vpintheak]

Kabuki theater complete. America can now happily go on pissing away our nations future, and continue slowly handing it over to communists.

[Sicon]

The 63-36 vote came only days before the June 5 deadline by which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned the debt limit must be raised to avert a first-ever default on the nation’s ability to pay its debts.

Must be nice to be able to just “raise the debt limit” to avoid defaulting on your debts. I’m sure a lot of us wish we could do that.

[Salman]

Both sides found bipartisan agreement on boosting defense spending by more than $26 billion.

The merchants of death win again.

Bipartisan support == mass murder for profit.

[Navy Patriot]

IRS funding to be cut by more than $20 billion

Hummm.

Sounds too good to be true.

Suspect the Devil is in the Details.

Probably a cut of 20 billion after four successive raises of 100 Billion.

[Secret Agent Man]

Yeah

[Secret Agent Man]

We’ll see if they really repurpose it or not.

[gitmo]

We are increasing aid to Communist China a d simultaneously borrowing more from them.

[cymbeline]

“https://fsapps.fiscal.treasury.gov/dts/files/23053100.pdf“

(US Treasury Statement)

Wow! Interesting. I’ve bookmarked it for some study. Thanks!

[napscoordinator]

Those 87,000 irs workers are going to replace the retirees that are coming in the next 25 years. Other places should have a plan. The baby boomers are going to wipe out the entire work force. The numbers are huge.