leverage in negotiations to raise the debt limit, which, by the way, we re told from the u.s. treasury, should happen around next thursday, and then the clock is ticking over how you can avoid that, and what bills you pay in the meantime. i see a big food fight here. well, i think i know why congress is out all the time. it s probably because they re trying to deal with a showdown like this every other couple of months. yes, we re expecting a massive showdown over the debt ceiling, a debt limit fight coming up soon. secretary yellen, as you know, announced we d hit the debt limit by january 19th. that basically starts the clock ticking on congress to do something about that. they have a couple of months to figure things out. you ll remember, 20 conservatives, those conservatives that held up the speakership bid last week, 15 rounds to finally get speaker mccarthy the gavel, they will be a big part of these
controversial. i will say the spending cuts are controversial. the debt ceilings are controversial. mccarthy has work cut out for him. this is a four seat majority. he can only lose four votes on any piece of legislation. so even outside of the concessions, john, this would have been an incredibly difficult congress for mccarthy to manage. two parter here. is there any chance the rules won t be approved today. and secondly, the debt limit. are we heading to a dangerous place with that later this year? on the latter, yes. if you were rearing up for a debt limit fight in january, whatever month it is, january, for a spring or summer debt limit, then, yes. it s going to be quite it s going to be quite volatile. that s the second question. first question on the rules package, i believe it will pass senior republican leadership folks that i spoke to yesterday
this will be familiar to a lot of liberal democrats who say the same thing about the democratic party. if they would just fight harder, they could do certain things, but let me read you this. this is a dear colleague letter on demands to check the biden agenda. this is in december. they want to end vaccine mandates, but also reinstate and protect discharged service members. get rid of the vaccine mandates. the farm bill must reform food stamp welfare programs and block chinese government land buying. the debt ceiling must implement spending caps. appropriation bills must use the power of the purse, restore energy freedom, block the hiring of more irs personnel. it s magical thinking to think you can stop the hiring at the irs, stop the border from having migrants coming in. they believe if they had the right leader, they could do it. they re crazy. okay. when i was there, i was the only member out of 435 to vote
i don t know how they d had to govern after this, joy. and and whether or not that was their intention in the first place, is not the intention at this point. and gates nominating donald trump, there s a level of un-seriousness here, that makes me worry about the debt ceiling. because even if kevin mccarthy pulls, ossoff or whoever becomes speaker. how on earth to they get through a debt ceiling, a debt limit fight with his group of people, but as you just said, are playing games, unserious, and there asks are all about getting government, and their jobs are supposed to be to govern, not to under-do the government. let s bring in ali vitale, stay with me michael steele. ali, give me a read of what s going on on the floor, ali. we re watching these votes rolling in realtime, joy. we are here at the same time last, hour as kevin mccarthy in his folks tried to, adjourn after a day of negotiating and losing multiple ballots. so, here we are again, i think
congress who are all but assured of re-election in their districts and just can t be conservative enough for many of the folks back home. this is about the divide in our country, the end of the old chain of command in congress, and anger over obamacare. the tea partiers were giddy about keeping the federal government frozen. on the eve of the shutdown, michele bachmann told the washington post, quote, we re very excited. it s exactly what we wanted, and we got it. well, fast forward nine years, and one of the holdouts against kevin mccarthy, south carolina congressman ralph norman, said mccarthy would have to commit to shut down the government rather than raise the debt ceiling in order to win the support of his opponents. but in the midst of today s votes, negotiations between the pro and anti-mccarthy factions have continued behind the scenes in hopes of ending this republican impasse, but sources tell nbc news that a deal could