Senate Democrats reject debt ceiling talks even after McCarthy shows them his plan
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Top Senate Democrats are echoing President Joe Biden’s opposition to negotiating with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the debt ceiling even after the House passed the GOP plan, a result Democrats had publicly predicted would not be possible for months.
In McCarthy’s most significant challenge since becoming speaker, he was able to cobble together enough votes to pass the bill, which was approved 217 to 215 on Wednesday night. The legislation pairs nearly $4.8 trillion in deficit reduction measures with a debt limit increase into the next year. The bill would freeze spending at last year’s levels for a decade and would also roll back parts of Biden’s expansive health, climate, and tax law, expand mining and fossil fuel production, and impose work requirements on social programs.
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“Yesterday, House Republicans passed, through the narrowest possible margin, a bill that amounts to a little more than a hard right ransom note to the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said during a speech on the floor of the Senate on Thursday. “Either Republicans will force a default on the debt, or they will force steep cuts highly unpopular with the American people.”
Biden continues to say he will not bargain over lifting the debt limit.
“I will meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” Biden said at a news conference Wednesday ahead of the House’s vote. “That’s not negotiable.”
Other top Democrats are backing up Biden and the Senate majority leader.
“There will be conversation and time for it,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, on Thursday. “The premise of the president’s position I accept, and I think is the right way to go.”
The bill comes after Republicans, for months, tried and failed to unite around a specific budget blueprint that would detail spending cuts they want in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. But instead of a budget, Republicans unveiled the Limit, Save and Grow Act.
Democrats said Republicans should show their plan before any negotiations took place. GOP lawmakers point to the House vote as a reason for Democrats to head to the bargaining table.
Top Democrats in the Senate continue to call the House’s bill “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.
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But not all Democrats agree with this position. Several House Democrats have called on Biden to sit with McCarthy and negotiate over the last week. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a centrist Democrat in a ruby-red state who faces a tough reelection, has also urged Biden to be more willing to come to the table.
“We should be able to sit down and talk like grown-ups,” Manchin told reporters. “Everybody should be involved.”
The standstill comes as the Treasury Department faces a growing risk of running out of wiggle room under the borrowing cap to pay bondholders and other obligations. These measures could run out as early as June. The exact timing is still uncertain, but the department intends to release an updated forecast soon.