Here’s a relevant blast from the recent past, when Republicans decided they didn’t need to play the debt ceiling hostage game. But the rules are always different for a Republican president.
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“I said, I remember, to Senator Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, ‘Would anyone ever use this to negotiate with?’ They said “absolutely not”. It’s a sacred part of our country. They can’t use the debt ceiling to negotiate. What a difference a presidential election can make when you’re a Republican.
Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries released a joint statement backing Biden’s position that paying the nation’s debts is not up for negotiation. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting until June 1 to come together, pass a clean bill to avoid default and avoid catastrophic consequences for our economy and millions of American families,” they said. “Republicans cannot allow right-wing extremism to hold our nation hostage.”
Jeffries announcement On Tuesday, House Democrats would begin the process to push through a clean bill on raising the debt limit through a discharge petition. This allows a majority of 218 members of the House to bypass the leadership and send a bill out of committee, straight to the floor. It is given legislative priority and must be voted on, but not after many legislative days of so-called “maturation” passes. As a real tool to solve the crisis before June 1, it will not work. There just aren’t the roughly three months it will take to accomplish. As a release valve for panicked Republicans who don’t want to fall with the McCarthy/Freedom Caucus default ship, this might come in handy.
Likewise, Schumer has started the process to pass a bill on the debt ceiling in the Senate. He tabled two options: a bill to suspend the debt ceiling until 2024, and another for the McCarthy/Freedom caucus bill that the House passed last week. These were just preliminary procedural motions to clear floor space to deal with the matter, with no decision on the amendment process or anything else.
The debt ceiling is the limit imposed by Congress on how much the government can borrow to continue to pay debts already incurred – money that Congress has already appropriated. These debts include items such as payment of military, social security and other federal pensions, as well as payments on foreign debt. The federal government must borrow money to pay its bills when its day-to-day operations cannot be financed solely by federal taxes and other revenues.
If the debt ceiling is exceeded, the consequences will be disastrous for millions of Americans. Secretary Yellen made it clear in her letter to McCarthy. A default would cause “serious hardship for American families, harm our position as a global leader, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests.”
This would immediately kill jobs, not only for federal workers, but also for people like janitors and rural and community hospital nurses.hospitals that rely on federal payments. Social security benefits, veterans’ pensions and troop salaries could be cut.
Even getting close to default is dangerous, Yellen pointed out. “We have learned from past debt limit stalemates that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can seriously damage business and consumer confidence, increase short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States. United States,” Yellen said in the letter.
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Last week seems to have packed in a month’s worth of news. Markos and Kerry tackle everything from Joe Biden’s big announcement to Tucker Carlson’s early retirement from Fox News.
