Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that Republicans in the Senate will likely not vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling.
As The Daily Wire reported, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in July to protect “the full faith and credit of the United States” by extending Congress’ 2019 suspension of the debt ceiling — which bars the federal government from taking on a certain level of debt. Congress did not vote on continuing the suspension, prompting Yellen to take “extraordinary measures” to fund the federal government.
“If Congress has not acted to suspend or increase the debt limit by Monday, August 2, 2021, Treasury will need to start taking certain additional extraordinary measures in order to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations,” she explained in a letter. “The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty due to a variety of factors, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the U.S. government months into the future, exacerbated by the heightened uncertainty in payments and receipts related to the economic impact of the pandemic.”
McConnell recently indicated that any vote to suspend the debt ceiling would have to be led by Democrats.
In a recent interview with Punchbowl News, the lawmaker said he “can’t imagine there will be a single Republican voting to raise the debt ceiling after what we’ve been experiencing.”
“I can’t imagine a single Republican in this environment that we’re in now — this free-for-all for taxes and spending — to vote to raise the debt limit,” McConnell added. “I think the answer is they need to put it in the reconciliation bill.”
The outlet explains:
This is a loud warning shot across the bow to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, President Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the entire Democratic establishment… This isn’t a completely unusual position for Republicans in the minority. But the problem here for Democrats is that they won’t be able to put together a reconciliation bill for weeks or even several months, and the federal government will likely reach its borrowing limit much sooner. The Treasury Department has not set a target date yet.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) denounced Republicans’ lack of willingness to address the debt ceiling.
“This debt is Trump debt,” argued Schumer on the Senate floor, as reported by Fox Business. “It’s COVID debt. Democrats joined three times during the Trump administration to do the responsible thing, and the bottom line is that Leader McConnell should not be playing political games with the full faith and credit of the United States. Americans pay their debts.”
The current national debt is $28.5 trillion.