As Democrats Rush To Raise Debt Ceiling, Republicans Vow Not To Help

Democrats are urgently trying to raise the debt ceiling – and they’re relying on GOP support to do it.

Democrats elected not to include the increase in their new $3.5 trillion spending package, which would have allowed them to raise the debt ceiling on their own.

Even though many Republicans supported raising the debt ceiling during the Trump administration, they are resisting the new push from Democratic congressional leaders.

“Democrats have all the existing tools they need to raise the debt limit on a partisan basis,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) commented. “If they want 50 lockstep Democratic votes to spend trillions and trillions more, they can find 50 Democratic votes to finance it. If they don’t want Republicans’ input, they don’t need our help.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) seemed to echo McConnell’s sentiment, stating that Democrats can raise the debt ceiling “with their own votes.”

“So I think that’s something that they can do on their own and they should because they’re the ones that have pushed this debt to the point where it really is getting dangerously high,” Portman added.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that failing to raise the ceiling would result in “irreparable harm to the U.S. economy and the livelihoods of all Americans.”

“Congress should do so again now by increasing or suspending the debt limit on a bipartisan basis,” Yellen said. “The vast majority of the debt subject to the debt limit was accrued prior to the administration taking office. This is a shared responsibility.”

Article by Elizabeth Letsou