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Over the weekend, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed on a invoice to boost the debt ceiling. If the invoice passes the House Rules Committee vote in the present day, then House Republicans will vote on it later this week. As we wait to seek out out the way forward for the laws forward of subsequent week’s default deadline, we’re spending in the present day’s e-newsletter enthusiastic about how these negotiations match into the bigger cultural battles being waged throughout the nation.
First, listed below are 4 new tales from The Atlantic:
A Struggle for Control
Over the previous decade, America’s debt-limit negotiations have turned from an institutional formality right into a polarized political debate. And in 2023, these negotiations have additionally taken on parts of the nation’s tradition wars. As my colleague Ronald Brownstein famous final week, the funds cuts that House Republicans have argued for are targeted on “the relatively small slice of the federal budget that funds most of the government’s investments in children and young adults, who are the most racially diverse generations in American history.” Programs that profit America’s younger individuals, equivalent to Head Start or Pell Grants, bear the burden of House Republicans’ desired cuts, whereas Social Security and Medicare are exempt from funds cuts (in contrast to in earlier GOP debt-reduction plans).
“The budget fight, in many ways, represents the fiscal equivalent to the battle over cultural issues raging through Republican-controlled states across the country,” Ron wrote. This debate is a brand new entrance, Ron argues, in “the struggle for control of the nation’s direction.” What’s ostensibly a fiscal feud can also be a conflict between the pursuits of the older, predominantly white voters who make up the GOP base and the youthful, extra various Americans who Democrats are coming to depend on.
I checked in with Ron by e mail this afternoon to see how the bipartisan settlement of this previous weekend affected the prognosis for applications that serve America’s younger individuals. Ron jogged my memory that as a result of the deal requires general caps fairly than cuts to particular person applications, anticipating what the particular cuts is likely to be is troublesome, till Congress passes its appropriations payments for these applications later this yr. And GOP lawmakers didn’t find yourself with the ten years of spending caps they’d initially known as for: Instead, the agreed-upon laws consists of simply two years of caps after which switches to targets that aren’t legally binding. But although the nation won’t in the end see the total extent of House Republicans’ preliminary desired cuts, the proposal itself is notable for what it says concerning the voters the celebration hopes to achieve. As Ron aptly put it:
Looming over these [spending] decisions is the intertwined generational and racial re-sorting of the 2 events’ electoral coalitions … The GOP has grow to be extra depending on older white people who find themselves both eligible for the federal retirement applications or nearing eligibility.
For the Democrats’ half, Biden’s personal funds proposal sought to extend taxes for top-earning Americans (who additionally are typically older) to be able to protect spending that advantages younger individuals. This proposal didn’t make it into the weekend’s settlement, nonetheless.
As we maintain our eye on the developments of the subsequent few days, Ron’s conclusion affords a useful reminder of the stakes of those negotiations:
In 2024, Millennials and Gen Z might, for the primary time, forged as many ballots because the Baby Boomers and older generations; by 2028, they’ll virtually definitely surpass the older teams. In the struggle over the federal funds and debt ceiling—simply as within the struggles over cultural points unfolding within the states—Republicans look like racing to lock into regulation insurance policies that favor their older, white base earlier than the rising generations purchase the electoral clout to power a distinct path.
Related:
Today’s News
- A drone assault hit Moscow, damaging residential buildings in civilian areas. Ukraine has denied “direct” involvement.
- Elizabeth Holmes reported to jail to start serving her sentence of greater than 11 years.
- Nine individuals had been injured in a mass taking pictures at Florida’s Hollywood Beach Broadwalk on Memorial Day.
More From The Atlantic
Culture Break
Read. Cynthia Ozick’s new brief story, “Late-Night-Radio Talk-Show Host Tells All,” concerning the seduction of radio. Then learn this new Atlantic interview about her writing course of.
Listen. The newest episode of our How to Talk to People podcast covers the infrastructure of neighborhood—and the way the design of bodily areas can both encourage or discourage relationships.
Katherine Hu contributed to this article.