Why Biden isn’t hitting the panic button on the debt ceiling — yet

As the nation barrels toward fiscal catastrophe, President Joe Biden is intent, for now, to keep his powder dry.

Senate Republicans are rebuffing an effort by Democrats to lift the nation’s debt ceiling through a government funding bill that would require 60 votes. And they’re doing so while relying on the unusual argument that while members of the GOP wholeheartedly want to see the debt limit raised or suspended, they just don’t want to be the ones to do it.

That’s left Biden with few options: Plow forward with the...