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Why Mitch McConnell is stepping down
Mitch McConnell's resignation: What are the implications? | Jon Lieber | US Politics In :60

Why Mitch McConnell is stepping down

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

What are the implications of the retirement of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell from his leadership post?

This week Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell announced his intention to step down as leader of the Republicans after serving longer in that post than anybody else in American history. There are really two implications that I can see.

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FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives for the signing into law a bill at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, December 17, 2010.

REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

Mitch McConnell takes his cue

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced Wednesday he would step down as Senate Minority leader in November after 17 years at the top of the Senate GOP. McConnell’s resignation comes as he faces pressure to endorse former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, but the two reportedly haven’t spoken in over three years.
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US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate caucus lunches at the US Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 24, 2023.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

McConnell takes a stand on Ukraine

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Senate Republican leader, is known for cutting shrewd political deals. Most are designed to keep Senate Republicans unified, others include give-and-take with Democrats, but nearly all are struck quietly behind closed doors.

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NATO flag

Ari Winkleman

What We’re Watching: NATO members’ defense budgets, Social Security as a political weapon, China’s support for Sri Lanka

NATO chief wants more defense spending

As Russian aggression in Ukraine enters year two, NATO members need to boost their defense spending. That was the message from NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday after a summit with member states’ defense ministers. Back in 2014, around the time of Russia’s invasion of Crimea, NATO states committed to raising their respective defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product. (NATO’s direct budget is separate from national defense budgets.) Still, while many have increased their spending on military equipment and training, most NATO states – including Germany, France, Italy, and Canada – still fall short of the 2% threshold. The US, for its part, leads the pack, spending 3.47% of GDP on defense. (You’ll likely remember that former President Donald Trump made a habit of slamming NATO members, particularly Germany, for not paying their fair share. As war ravages Europe again and tensions with China soar, Stoltenberg says that the 2% target, which expires next year, should be the floor – not the ceiling. Finland and Sweden, both vying to join the bloc, respectively spend 2% and 1.3% of GDP on defense.

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Ian Explains: The debt ceiling
Ian Explains: Debt Ceiling | GZERO World

Ian Explains: The debt ceiling

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that her department had begun using extraordinary cash management measures to prevent a credit default until June 5th, but the clock is ticking. If Congress fails to increase the debt ceiling by the time the Treasury runs out of cash, then the US government could default on its loans for the first time in history, Ian Bremmer explains. Not only would this shake investor confidence in US bonds, raising the prospect of an American recession, but because US debt is the cornerstone of the world economy, it could also spark a global financial calamity.

So, what’s the holdup? Politics, of course. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who handed the hard-right delegation of his party everything short of a kidney to secure his leadership role, is signaling that the only way Republicans will agree to increase the debt ceiling is if President Biden works with them on spending cuts in the federal budget—a budget that has grown nearly 30% over the last three years.

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Who will cave on raising US debt ceiling (again?)
Who Will Cave On Raising US Debt Ceiling (Again?) | GZERO World

Who will cave on raising US debt ceiling (again?)

In a development that will surprise exactly no one, there’s more than a little kicking and screaming going on these days in Washington over the debt ceiling debate. On GZERO World, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a throwback from another era of US politics, has a message for the rabble-rousers on both sides: pipe down.

That means stop playing brinkmanship with a US debt default, Romney tells Ian Bremmer in the latest episode of GZERO World.

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Is the GOP still a MAGA party? Or just Trump's party?
Is The GOP Still a MAGA Party? Or Just Trump's Party? | GZERO World

Is the GOP still a MAGA party? Or just Trump's party?

There's a lot of hand-wringing going on right now within Republican ranks after the GOP's worse than expected midterm results.

The big question is: Is the Republican party still the party of Trump? NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith tells Ian Bremmer that there may be no going back to what the party used to be.

"There's just a lot of people in the Republican party who don't see themselves going back to the nice, polite Mitch McConnell, Bob Dole Republican Party," Keith says in this week's episode of GZERO World.

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Paige Fusco

Democrats and Republicans unite! At least against China.

This week, the US Senate passed the so-called Endless Frontier Act, a $250 billion investment in development of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, the manufacture of semiconductors, and other tech-related sectors. The goal is to harness the combined power of America's public and private sectors to meet the tech challenges posed by China.

In its current form, this is the biggest diversion of public funds into the private sector to achieve strategic goals in many decades. The details of this package, and of the Senate vote, say a lot about US foreign-policy priorities and this bill's chances of becoming law.

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