WASHINGTON — Joe Biden was there in 2011 when Democrats tried to negotiate the type of broad deficit-reduction plan that GOP lawmakers are once again demanding as a condition of raising the federal debt ceiling.
The talks imploded, setting off a brinkmanship-ridden saga that narrowly averted default, led to the first-ever U.S. credit-rating downgrade and hardened both parties’ positions in future debt-limit debates.
Twelve years later, Biden has made clear he remembers the lesson. Biden says he won’t negotiate while the debt limit is held hostage, setting up what veterans of the 2011 ordeal say is looming as an even more fraught showdown over the next several months on raising the borrowing cap.
