Senate leaders play debt ceiling blame game while aides negotiate behind the scenes
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Aides for top congressional leaders resumed talks on raising the nation’s debt limit behind closed doors, even as top Senate leaders continue to wage a messaging war one day after meeting with President Joe Biden.
“As you recall, I’ve consistently said since February, the way this dilemma is dealt with is determined by the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said during a press conference with reporters on Wednesday. “They gave us a divided government, just like they did in 2019, when I had to tell President Trump something he was not anxious to hear, which he needed to reach an agreement with Nancy Pelosi on this issue.”
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“You may recall, he designated the Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, who negotiated a deal, and Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi, two bitter enemies, entered into a two-year budget cap and increased the debt ceiling. This can be done, and it must be done,” McConnell added.
Democrats are still refusing publicly to entertain Republicans’ spending cut demands. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is criticizing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), attempting to separate his actions from those of McConnell.
“Speaker McCarthy was the only person in the room who refused to take the default off the table,” Schumer said to reporters on Wednesday. “The one person standing in the way is Speaker McCarthy. President Biden said he would, Leader Jeffries said he would, I would, Leader McConnell, outside, he didn’t say anything in the room, but outside he too said we must avoid default.”
Time is running out to avoid a historic default, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned could happen as soon as June 1. Though both sides agree that a default would be disastrous and should be avoided at all costs, Republicans are using the prospect of default to leverage a host of spending cuts. Biden and the Democrats have decried the cuts and pledged not to budge.
“Instead, Speaker McCarthy doubled down on his efforts, and rather than take default off the table, he’s going to take it hostage,” Schumer added.
There are minor signs of progress that are emerging, however. Staff for Biden, McCarthy, Schumer, McConnell, and Jeffries met Wednesday afternoon for roughly two hours. They plan to meet again on Thursday ahead of a Friday meeting between Biden and the top congressional leaders. Democrats still insist that these negotiations are separate from those happening to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
Biden has said he may be open to Republicans’ push to take back unspent COVID-19 relief, which amounts to less than $80 billion. The White House has also signaled it may be willing to pursue energy permitting reform, a debt limit priority for Republicans, according to aides close to negotiations.
The last time the nation was this close to default was when there was a dispute in 2011. Congressional Republicans sought to pressure then-President Barack Obama to accept spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. Fears of government default rocked the financial markets and led to an unprecedented downgrade of the nation’s credit rating. Ultimately, this forced a last-minute deal between the two parties.
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Senators on both sides of the aisle said that’s an outcome they hope to avoid.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that’s not the case because that 2011 fiasco just about crashed the economy,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Tuesday. “I think what we’ve heard repeatedly from leading economists is we just can’t put our economy at risk, period.”