Mnuchin Wants ‘Clean’ Debt Ceiling Hike

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “has begun lobbying congressional leaders for a ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase, according to Capitol Hill sources. But that debt increase — needed sometime this fall — will prove a tough vote for both parties, and neither GOP nor Democratic leaders have signed yet off on the Trump administration’s plan to raise the debt limit without attaching other policy sweeteners,” Politico reports.

Washington Post: “Talks between the White House and the Senate’s top Republican and Democrat broke up Tuesday with no progress on raising the country’s debt ceiling, an impasse that threatens a financial crisis if left unresolved.”

Playbook: “This fight is going to take up a lot of oxygen on Capitol Hill over the next several weeks. Republican aides for weeks have said they expect the Senate to pass a clean debt ceiling bill, and send it to the House, where it would be passed with a small number of House Republicans and a majority of House Democrats. This will inflame conservative Republicans, who want to extract something before the Congress raises the country’s borrowing limit.”