May 24, 2023· 44 min

On the Debt Ceiling, the White House Is Doing What It Said It Wouldn't Do

Skanda Amarnath

Orality

Model

83%

Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,958 words)

M:29%

GuestSkanda Amarnath(2,417 words)

M:29%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic26%

very, absolutely, clearly

Engagement62%

you, our, your

Memory Aids100%

listen, like, well

Repetition100%

like (82x), debt (69x), think (62x)

Parallelism81%

And I'm Tracy Alloway...., But, of course, the wild card ..., And so you have this situation...

Sound Patterns64%

55 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"

Formulaic Phrases5%

you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging11%

probably, may, might

Passive Voice10%

be unprecedented, is owned, was perceived

Abstract Nouns25%

investment, portion, situation

Subordination8%

because, unless, though

Sentence Length40%

Avg: 14.9 words/sentence

Word Complexity48%

investment, analyze, anticipate

Academic Markers4%

according to

Impersonal Style38%

529 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style86%

internationally, apply, exactly

Description

In 2011, then-Vice President Biden had a front row seat to a bruising debt ceiling standoff between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. That fight arguably derailed the Obama presidency and the nascent economic recovery. After that experience, Biden and his team had insisted that this time they would not negotiate over a debt ceiling increase. Yet here we are, and the current administration is doing exactly that. According to the Treasury Department, we're just days away from the so called "X-date" (when a US default would occur) and both the White House and new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have been debating what conditions a hike in the debt ceiling should come with. So how did they get into this situation? And what were the other options? On this episode we speak with Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, and Arnab Datta, senior counsel of Employ America, about the current state of play and how it might have been avoided. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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