Via National Review:
Per reports, President Trump just agreed to a three-month raise of the debt ceiling in a meeting with congressional leaders. That puts him in alignment with Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Jake Sherman of Politico adds that Republicans “are furious” and that “the Democratic ploy — to keep debt limit short term — worked.”
While it’s obviously uncertain how the next few months will play out, Trump appears to have handed Democrats a political victory. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin signaled that the administration had a strong desire to pass the debt-limit increase. The political tack Mnuchin proposed was to attach the debt measure to relief funding for Hurricane Harvey.
But the duration of the debt-limit increase matters as much as the route by which it’s passed, and Mnuchin — and Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell — supported longer-term increases of 18, then six, months. The opposition party can use the possibility of a technical default, which would have severe consequences, as leverage to score political points, or defeat bills they don’t want. Republicans learned this during the Obama presidency when debt-ceiling fights strengthened their negotiating position.