Today is Saturday, May 27, 2023. On this Memorial Day weekend, we have late-breaking news that a tentative deal is imminent between President Joe Biden and top Congressional leader Kevin McCarthy, possibly ending a months-long statement, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations said today. This late development is covered online in a CNN article by Gram Slattery entitled “Biden, McCarthy have tentative US debt ceiling deal – sources.”

Biden and McCarthy held a 90-minute phone call earlier Saturday evening to discuss the deal. If a deal can be reached before the tentative fiscal deadline of June 1, which now has been extended to June 5 according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, it would avert an economic destabilizing default, so long as they succeed on passing it through the narrowly divided Congress before the Treasury Department runs short of money to cover all of its obligations, which it warned Friday will occur if the debt ceiling is not raised by early June.

Republicans who control the House of Representatives have pushed for steep cuts to spending and other conditions, including new work requirements on some benefit programs for low-income Americans and for funds to be stripped from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. tax agency.

Supposedly, repugnicans have indicated they want to slow the growth of the U.S. debt, which is quite precious since this party has raised the debt quite easily when there was a repugnican president in office. Especially during the tenure of the Orange-Haired one preceding Biden in the Oval Office.

In the interim, Biden originally refused to negotiate with McCarthy and his lunatic caucus over future spending cuts, demanding that lawmakers first pass a “clean” debt-ceiling increase free of other conditions.

All through this gut-wrenching process, Democrats have accused repugnicans of playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship with the economy.

The last time the nation got this close to default was in 2011, when Washington also had a Democratic president and Senate and a Republican-led House.

Before the legislation can be passed, the details of the bill have to overcome opposition from both hard-right repugnicans and progressive Democrats.

It will then have to pass the Senate, where it will need at least nine Republican votes to succeed. Unfortunately, there are multiple opportunities in each chamber along the way to slow down the process.

It would be foolhardy for anyone still unhappy with the bill to vote the legislation down in order to torpedo the economy. Do repugnicans want to humiliate Biden that much in order to destroy the American economy in the process? Let’s see how self-destructive they really are!

Anyway, I was missing in action yesterday because Elliot and I were with our friend “Gene” in Bayside and didn’t come home until late at night. We first drove to his home at around 4:30 and schmoozed for an hour or so before Gene drove us in his electric-blue Honda Civic to a Greek restaurant called Mythos on Northern Boulevard.

From the restaurant, we came back to Gene’s house where we spent some time watching old television series in Gene’s porch room. We actually watched a very old episode of The Andy Griffith Show in which the town drunk, Otis Campbell, was determined to be the living relative of a former Revolutionary Hero that lived in the town during the launching of this big, bold country. Laughs abounded when Otis had to clean up his act in order to receive an award from some Lady Auxiliary Historical Society.

As it was getting dark, we decided to take our leave and say good night to Gene. It was now dark when Elliot drove back to Forest Hills. Thank God there was no traffic as we sped back to our neck of the woods.

Have a good Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.