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The U.S. Capitol.

Reuters

The US government is heading toward a shutdown. What does that mean?

The US government looks set to shut down this Sunday after House Republicans indicated that they would not support a bipartisan Senate bill that would fund the federal government past this weekend’s deadline.

Absent a last-minute agreement, many federal agencies could soon shut down, while millions of federal workers could be placed on furlough without pay due to a lapse in funding from Congress, which controls the purse strings.

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Biden & McCarthy both win in debt ceiling showdown
Biden & McCarthy both win in debt ceiling showdown | US Politics In :60 | GZERO Media

Biden & McCarthy both win in debt ceiling showdown

Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, DC shares his perspective on US politics.

Who won the debt ceiling showdown between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy?

And the answer is everyone's a winner. President Biden, first and foremost, avoided a default, which would have been a terrible consequence for Biden politically and the US and world economy. Very happy that didn't happen. Biden can now spin the modest spending reductions in the bill that increased the debt ceiling as a bipartisan victory, which should potentially help in his reelection campaign as he tries to campaign as a quasi-moderate, which is what brought him to office in 2020 and he put the debt ceiling issue behind us for another two years until at least January of 2025, which is going to be after the next presidential election. And the US is likely to revisit a lot of these fiscal issues once again, using the debt ceiling as a point of leverage to achieve further spending cuts and potentially an extension of the Trump tax cuts that expire in 2026.

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US Sen. John Thune (R-SD) talks to reporters about wrangling over the upcoming vote on debt ceiling legislation to avoid a historic default at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

On the buzzer, US Senate passes debt ceiling deal

The US Senate on Thursday night passed an eleventh-hour compromise deal to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts demanded by Republicans. The bill is now ready to be signed into law by President Joe Biden and prevents the US government from running out of money to pay its bills.

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Chris Christie interview: The truth about the 2024 GOP primary race
Chris Christie interview: The truth about the 2024 GOP primary race | GZERO World

Chris Christie interview: The truth about the 2024 GOP primary race

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is playing coy on whether he'll throw his hat in the ring for the Republican presidential nomination for 2024, indicating he might simply influence the conversation from afar. In a wide-ranging interview with Ian Bremmer, Christie outlines the stark reality he sees about the GOP primary as things begin to heat up on the campaign trail. "I think there's one lane for the nomination, and right now, Donald Trump's in the front of that lane," Christie tells Bremmer. "And if you want to get in the front of that lane, you better intervene and go right through him because otherwise trying to go around him, I don't think it's a strategy."

Note: This interview was first featured in the GZERO World episode "Republican identity crisis: Chris Christie vs. Donald Trump," published on May 15, 2023.

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Stack of US dollar bills with ascending line

Paige Fusco, with image by DonkeyHotey

Debt ceiling crisis: A default by any other name...

The debt ceiling – dubbed by Ian Bremmer as the dumbest recurring character in US politics – is rearing its ugly head with no end in sight.

Republicans and Democrats have been sparring for weeks, and while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden made meaningful progress in recent days, a deal remains elusive. The US government, meanwhile, will breach the so-called “X-date,” when it runs out of money to pay its bills, by late next week. Yet, legislators are fleeing Capitol Hill ahead of the holiday weekend in spite of the threat of the X-date arriving before a deal.

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F-16s for Ukraine redefine red line for Putin (again)
TITLE PLACEHOLDER | World In :60 | GZERO Media

F-16s for Ukraine redefine red line for Putin (again)

Will Biden's reversal to allow F-16s to Ukraine be a game-changer? What is holding up a debt ceiling deal? Will the EU's lawsuit against Meta lead to a data-sharing agreement with the United States? Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

Will Biden's reversal to allow F-16s to Ukraine be a game-changer?

Well, Putin says it is. Says that that would absolutely be a line that would be crossed and be irreversible. Of course, he said that about a bunch of things, and his credibility in a response to NATO providing defense to Ukraine has been significantly eroding over the last year. Of course, we also see not just F-16s, but we see Ukrainian armored troop carriers suddenly five miles deep in Russian territory, in Belgorod. The Ukrainians say it wasn't them, but they're very happy to embarrass Putin over that. Look, a lot of things that would've been seen as red lines six months ago now are not. Of course, that's good for the Ukrainians, but it also does mean that the tail risk dangers of this conflict are also going up.

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G7 alignment & US political challenges
G-7 alignment & US political challenges | Quick Take | GZERO Media

G7 alignment & US political challenges

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi everybody. Ian Bremmer here and a happy Monday. Quick take to start off your week as President Biden is back in the United States after the G7 Summit in Hiroshima.

What do we think? How did it go? Well, I mean a couple of very different takes. First of all, the G7 is enormously aligned, most particularly on Russia. I have never seen this level of outpouring of support. Every individual member of the G7 engaged personally with Ukrainian President Zelensky, the level of international aid coordination, diplomatic engagement, military support across the board continues to be at exceptionally high levels, not what Putin would've expected, not what the G7 would've expected before the Russian invasion, and that certainly helps to put Zelensky in a stronger position to negotiate with the Russians after a counter offensive over the coming months.

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Debt ceiling deal: long way to go in little time
Debt ceiling deal: long way to go in little time | US Politics In :60 | GZERO Media

Debt ceiling deal: long way to go in little time

Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, DC shares his perspective on US politics.

Will President Biden get a budget deal with Republican lawmakers?

In what's become an almost annual exercise, the US needs to increase its debt limit once again. With over $31 trillion on the national debt, Congress has to authorize the ability for treasury to borrow any more, and the new Republican majority in the House sees this as an opportunity to try to force President Biden into achieving some long-term budget cuts. The house passed a bill last month that would cut spending by about $4 trillion over the next 10 years. President Biden has proposed a budget that would reduce the deficit by over $3 trillion over the next 10 years through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. The Republicans have no interest whatsoever in those tax increases, however, so what they're negotiating towards is a package of spending cuts over 10 years that would probably cut budget deficits by somewhere between $1-2 trillion. However, President Biden up until about a week ago said that he was not open to negotiating on the debt limit, and instead wanted to keep the discussions focused around the government's annual appropriations process, which is supposed to take place around September 30th. With the debt limit deadline coming up on or around June 1st, the US could potentially default if lawmakers have not achieved a deal well in advance of that deadline, which we're about two weeks away from right now. Negotiations are just starting to heat up between Speaker Kevin McCarthy's staff and the White House staff. President Biden has canceled part of his trip to Asia in order to come back to the United States to finish these negotiations. And this very well could come down to the wire, which is making markets very nervous about the fact that the US may not be able to make payments to certain people starting sometime in early June.

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