Hello, live blog readers. Happy Friday.
We’re not done with the debt limit deal yet – and, of course, let’s all remember, we won’t be done with the debt limit for a while as we’ll have to do this all again in a few weeks because the deal only extends the debt ceiling by $480bn through 3 December.
With a 50-48 vote, the Senate approved the deal Thursday night to extend the government’s borrowing authority, with the House coming back from recess early to vote on it Tuesday.
Politico is reporting that “a shouting match” erupted on the Senate floor after the vote, with Republican senators Mitt Romney and John Thune none too pleased with majority leader Chuck Schumer and what they thought was an ungracious speech.
Here’s video of the heated exchange – Schumer is sitting to the middle left when he is approached by Romney and Thune.
Schumer had lambasted the Republicans for playing a “dangerous and risky partisan game” and said Democrats were able to “pull our country back from the cliff’s edge that Republicans tried to push us over.”
The Republicans had twice used the filibuster to block the Democrats from raising the debt limit, and were threatening to do it once again before the deal. Their argument was that Democrats needed to raise the limit “on their own” via budget reconciliation, a lengthy and cumbersome process that would have consequences for the Democrats’ future legislative agenda.
Democrats then essentially bluffed by threatening a change to the filibuster rules, after which minority leader Mitch McConnell offered up the deal.
Centrist Democratic senator Joe Manchin could be seen putting his head in his hands during Schumer’s address, which he later called “inappropriate”.
Meanwhile, top Senate Republicans are now advancing a disinformation campaign over the debt ceiling, distorting the reasons for needing to raise the nation’s borrowing cap, Hugo Lowell reports.
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