Schumer pushes debt ceiling through Senate with slight of hand

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday pulled procedural tricks out of his hat in an effort to short circuit right-wing stall tactics and rush the debt ceiling increase through the Senate.

Facing a Monday deadline, the wily Brooklyn Democrat started the clock ticking to a final passage within minutes after the House passed the bill to avert a national default, a move that shaves 24 hours off the potential delay time.

“The Senate will stay in session until we send a bill avoiding default to President Biden’s desk,” Schume4 said Thursday. “We will keep working until the job is done.”

Schumer pulled a fast one on GOP malcontents by keeping the Senate officially in session all evening Wednesday.

Under Senate rules, that move allowed him to start the clock running towards a vote as soon as the House passed the measure in a bipartisan 314-117 vote before the clock struck midnight instead of Thursday morning.

Congress is racing to wrap up the package to ensure the government can keep paying its bills, and avert what could have been a global financial crisis.

The Treasury says it will run out of cash as soon as Monday, a tight deadline that forces Schumer to pull out all the legislative tricks to get a bill passed and sent to President Biden’s desk by then.

Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) backs the bill, smoothing the path to final passage.

But right-wing Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) bitterly oppose the measure and have vowed to gum up the works with amendments that have no realistic chance of passing.

The 99-page bill suspends the debt ceiling until after the 2024 presidential election in exchange for a near freeze in domestic spending and no repeal of Trump-era tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

Conservatives say the bill extends a harmful borrow-tax-and-spend cycle. Some progressives oppose its new rules on some federal benefits programs and approval of a climate-busting fossil fuel pipeline.