Republicans may have raised the debt ceiling three times while Donald Trump was president, but GOP senators said Wednesday they may not to do the same under President Joe Biden.
“We had a pandemic that drove a lot of [spending], but what’s been added on top of it, and what [Democrats] plan to spend moving forward on top of that, I think it calls for some level of sanity,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said.
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This announcement came on the same day the Senate moved to consider a $1 trillion infrastructure package and just 10 days before a suspension to the nation’s debt ceiling is set to expire. During the Trump administration, the debt ceiling was raised multiple times and $7 trillion was added to the national debt.
“Democrats went along during the Trump administration and we signed onto raising the debt limit three different times,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) “We didn’t try to negotiate for something, we didn’t ask for something special.”
The U.S. typically spends more than it generates in revenue, resulting in a national deficit. To cover this deficit, the country takes on debt. As of May, the deficit for 2021 was around $2 trillion and national debt amounted to $28.2 trillion, according to CNBC.
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If Republicans move forward with plans to block continued suspension of the debt ceiling and lawmakers are not able to make a deal by the end of the month, they will have to resort to “extraordinary measures” to keep paying bills, according to the Washington Post. By 2017, Roll Call reported that extraordinary measures had become a routine way to deal with national budget issues.
While Democrat President Barack Obama was president in 2011, Republicans similarly “embarked on a game of brinkmanship” over the debt limit, said the Washington Post. The outlet explained that when the GOP pulled this a decade ago, it nearly pushed the country into default.
Economists view the U.S. defaulting as something that could wreak havoc globally, and it did “spook” markets in 2011, said the Post. It also resulted in budget constraints for federal health, science and education programs.
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As the nation attempts to move forward from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and address issues such as affordable childcare, Democrats and the Biden administration are pushing for $3.5 trillion budget deal that will increase spending for climate change issues, Medicare and child care. They plan to pass the deal through reconciliation, which requires less Republican votes.
Democrats plan to fund the deal by taxing the wealthy.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday Republicans are not likely to vote for an increase to the debt ceiling. He said Democrats should deal with the issue as part of the budget reconciliation deal and also criticized plans to increase taxes.
“This is once again the McConnell double standard,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the chairman of the chamber’s Finance Committee, said Wednesday.
Other Republicans are considering demanding cuts to programs as the debt ceiling deadline looms, said the Washington Post. Despite threats from Republicans, White House did not seem keen to negotiate the debt ceiling subject.
“We expect Congress to act in a timely manner to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, as they did three times on a broad bipartisan basis during the last administration,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
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