DEBT BILL CLEARS:  The bipartisan bill funding the U.S. Government so it doesn't default at the end of the week, and containing other provisions, passed the U.S. Senate tonight.  It had already passed the House, and now goes to the president for his certain signature. 

So this "crisis" is over.  The Government won't run out of money, and, of course, the next generation will pay the bill for the loans that make solvency possible.  What a way to run a country!  From Fox: 

The Senate passed a bill to raise the government's borrowing limit late Thursday night, sending it to President Biden’s desk with just days to spare before the government was set to run out of money to pay its obligations on June 5.

The bill, which implements the deal struck by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending, passed in a 63-36 vote. Four Democrats, 31 Republicans and one Independent, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, voted "no."

House lawmakers sent the bill to the Senate on Wednesday in a bipartisan 314-117 vote after weeks of intense negotiations between McCarthy and Biden. The Senate's inability to pass its own bill made it a bystander in those talks and gave senators no realistic option other than approving the deal. 

The bipartisan deal suspends the debt limit with no cap through Jan. 1, 2025, cuts non-defense spending to near fiscal 2022 levels, caps spending increases at 1% the following year and sets non-mandatory caps for the four years after. It also claws back some money aimed at the Internal Revenue Service and some unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds.

Defense spending would rise by about 3% in the first year of the deal, below the rate of inflation. That drew complaints from several Republicans senators who warned on the floor that the deal would harm U.S. national security.

"To my House colleagues, I can't believe you did this," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on the Senate floor. "To the Speaker, I know you’ve got a tough job. I like you. But the party of Ronald Reagan is dying. Don't tell me that a defense budget that’s $42 billion below inflation fully funds the military."

Graham and others threatened to hold up the bill until assurances were given that defense spending would not be limited by the deal, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered those assurances.

"The agreement includes a commitment that the Senate will not be limited in its ability to respond to emerging or ongoing national security threats, including Russia’s unjust and unprovoked war in Ukraine, challenges posed by China with respect to our economy and the growing threat to Taiwan, and protecting vital interests and partners in the Middle East," Graham's office said in a statement released as the Senate was considering the bill.

COMMENT:  This all occurred at the very time when the race for the GOP presidential nomination is heating up, with many more candidates joining than had been expected.  It also occurs at a time of growing concern in the Democratic Party that President Biden might not be able to make the run.  The Dems do not have a deep bench, and the name Kamala Harris is not greeted with unbounded enthusiasm.

June 1,  2023