Biden and his team remember well the horror story of the 2011 debt ceiling extortion. A republican congress and democrat president is the only time we ever hear this debt ceiling bullshit. So they once again threaten to destroy the global economy if they don't get unspecified cuts to the budget? Never ever ever give them a penny of cuts under this threat to prevent future hostage taking. There are certainly some republicans crazy enough to shoot the hostage, but most will break ranks before crossing the line with something so utterly insane. And Wall Street will cut their balls off if they actually tried it. Budget cuts, maybe, but NEVER under the threat of default.

If this were a real negotiation and not an extortion threat, Democrats would be making their own demands. Instead of calling for a clean lifting of the debt ceiling they would be demanding things like expanding medicare, giving child care credits to families, at home care for seniors, etc. Democrats are of course too sane and responsible to even imagine threatening a global economic catastrophe with such demands.

Just so everyone is clear, the "debt ceiling" is an artificial accounting gimmick created in the early 20th Century by Congress. It has nothing to do with any real ceiling on America's borrowing. That would be determined by credit markets. And in fact credit markets NEED America to carry a lot of debt. US Treasury Bonds are the safest investment on the planet, and thus provide a stable element for every large investment portfolio on the planet. The last time there was talk of retiring the federal debt, in the late 1990s, investors freaked out wondering where they could find a safe haven for investments on the level of US Treasury Bonds.

Here is some very good MUST READING on the topic:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/politics/us-debt-negotiations-what-matters/index.html