GOP Squabbling Over U.S. Debt Limit As They Seek Brownie Points

Two months after Republicans allowed a vote on raising the debt ceiling to cover spending through mid-December, the party is once again using obstructionist tactics to gain paltry political points, jeopardizing the health of the entire US economy in the process, Sharon Zhang reported for Truthout.

Photo Insert: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

This time, Republicans are going to even further extremes to threaten a debt default and subsequent recession, bucking a plan formed through negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to pass the debt ceiling raise.

The plan proposes passing the debt ceiling raise through Congress’s defense appropriations bill or creating a new process that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised with a simple majority of 51 votes.

Instead, some Republicans are insisting — as they did earlier this year — that Democrats pass the raise through the reconciliation bill, a process that would likely take weeks. On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) told NBC that there wouldn’t be 10 Republicans who would agree to McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-New York) proposed rule change for a simple majority vote on the debt limit.

“I think Democrats should raise the debt limit through reconciliation,” he said.

Republicans have rationalized their opposition to raising the debt ceiling by saying that they refuse to fund spending from Democrats. But in reality, the current debts that need to be paid were racked up by Donald Trump and Republicans, who amassed nearly $8 trillion in debt during Trump’s four years in office.

This is more than any other president added to the deficit, with the exception of George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who were funding expensive war efforts. Without the defense bill or simple majority vote avenues, Democrats have very few options left to raise the debt ceiling.

Ineffectively rejecting all options other than the one that they favor — one that would likely allow Republicans to smear Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms — they are backing Democrats into a corner to force their hand on the raise, or else be blamed for the economic crisis that will follow.

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