On Sunday afternoon's edition of Inside With Jen Psaki, the former Biden White House Press Secretary turned MSNBC host took to the airwaves whining about congressional Republicans like Speaker Kevin McCarthy getting credit in the media, and in official Washington, for working out an agreement with President Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling. Proving that she is still essentially a left-wing activist, she used an analogy where McCarthy took people hostage, and Biden was the one who rescued them.
"I want to return to some version of normal as much as all of you. I also don't think compromise should be treated as a dirty word. That’s often how you get things done," Psaki lectured at the opening of the segment. "But the events of this week should not lull you into a sense of comfort that we’re on our way back to normalcy and bipartisanship. I wish I had a different take on this but that’s the truth having spent a lot of time in this town," she claimed.
She then used an analogy that compared McCarthy to a literal hostage taker who Biden had to rescue people from:
If someone took a bunch of innocent people hostage, let’s call that hostage taker Kevin, just for the sake of this example, and someone else negotiated to get them released, those hostages released, let's call that negotiator Joe, just for the sake of this example of course, would a lead like Kevin and Joe work collaboratively to release hostages, a sign of finding common ground and a promise of things to come make any sense at all? No, it would not. This is the same thing.
"So no, the debt limit deal struck between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden is not a sign that Washington is functioning again, I wish it was," she added.
She is right that the deal to raise the debt limit isn't a sign of Washington D.C. working. But the reason why isn't what she claims. Raising the debt ceiling trillions of dollars more instead of getting federal government spending under control is business as usual and just another sign of the dysfunction of our ruling class.
Psaki then echoed NBC's Chuck Todd by mentioning a slight change in IRS funding that McCarthy sought and huffed that there's now "less money going after people who cheat on their taxes."
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To read the transcript click "expand":
MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki
6/4/2023
12:26:52 p.m. EasternJEN PSAKI: Let me just say at the outset here, that when it comes to our politics, I want to return to some version of normal as much as all of you. I also don't think compromise should be treated as a dirty word. That’s often how you get things done. But the events of this week should not lull you into a sense of comfort that we’re on our way back to normalcy and bipartisanship. I wish I had a different take on this but that’s the truth having spent a lot of time in this town. Let me put it to you another way. If someone took a bunch of innocent people hostage, let’s call that hostage taker Kevin, just for the sake of this example, and someone else negotiated to get them released, those hostages released, let's call that negotiator Joe, just for the sake of this example of course, would a lead like Kevin and Joe work collaboratively to release hostages, a sign of finding common ground and a promise of things to come make any sense at all? No, it would not. This is the same thing.
And I think you’ve caught on by now to who Kevin and Joe are. So no, the debt limit deal struck between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden is not a sign that Washington is functioning again, I wish it was. Yes, we’ve avoided default and economic catastrophe without too many terrible things in the final deal. Yay for us. But the fact that the country came close to defaulting before a majority of Congress voted to prevent that from happening with a deal which by the way included crowning achievements like less money going after people who cheat on their taxes, is not exactly a victory for the history books and we shouldn’t treat it that way.
