In a targeted speech Monday, President Joe Biden called on Republicans in the Senate to “get out of the way” and “stop playing Russian Roulette with the U.S. economy” as he urged them to let Senate Democrats vote on a bill to raise the United States’ debt ceiling without the other party blocking its passage.
The nation faces a countdown to about Oct. 18, when the U.S. is expected to hit its debt limit and the Treasury Department will no longer be able to borrow any more money to fund government operations and pay its debts.
If the U.S. doesn’t suspend the limit by then, it will default on responsibilities such as interest payments, social security and Medicare, and the economic fallout could be disastrous.
“A meteor is headed to crash into our economy,” the president said, speaking directly to Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Just get out of the way. You don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don’t destroy it.”
The fight over raising the debt ceiling – which often happens with bipartisan support, though not always – has become intensely political this time around. Democrats want to avoid the optics of doing it on their own while Republicans say they don’t need to cooperate with the majority party since they can raise it on their own through the budget process.
On Monday, President Biden called on the GOP to let the Senate pass a House-approved bill to raise the debt limit by simple majority, or 51 votes, without Republicans filibustering against it.
“We’re able to borrow because we always pay our debt. We always pay what we owe. We’ve never failed,” he said. “Republicans in Congress raised the debt three times when Donald Trump was president and each time with Democrats’ support.”
“Now, they won’t raise it, even though they’re responsible for more than $8 trillion in bills incurred in four years under the previous administration,” President Biden added, noting that the debt limit is not new spending but instead meant to clear the way for payments on previous spending.
For their part, Republicans have repeatedly said for more than two months that Democrats can raise the debt limit on their own through the budget process, and they have refused to provide GOP votes to do it. The budget process is the same one Democrats will use to pass President Biden’s agenda on their own, though it is significantly more complicated and time-consuming than passing a normal bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a new letter to President Biden Monday, in which he called on the president to “engage directly with congressional Democrats” on raising the debt limit.
“Your lieutenants in Congress must understand that you do not want your unified Democratic government to sleepwalk toward an avoidable catastrophe when they have had nearly three months’ notice to do their job,” McConnell wrote.
President Biden responded to that letter Monday, which he read shortly before his remarks.
“I plan on talking to Mitch about it,” he said. “And I hope we can have some – [he] can tell us in an honest conversation about what he’s proposing.”
In a letter to Senate Democrats Monday morning, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote that Congress “must get a bill to the President’s desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period.”
Schumer said that Senate Republicans have “abdicated their responsibility” of raising the debt ceiling to account for spending passed under former president Donald Trump, and he warned his colleagues to prepare for possible work into the weekend to get something done.
“We do not have the luxury of waiting until October 18th,” Schumer wrote. “The consequences of even approaching the X date could be disastrous for our economy and devastating to American families, raising the costs of borrowing for average Americans and hampering our economic recovery over the long-term.”
Congress has consistently raised the debt ceiling dozens of times, including three times under the Trump administration.
But it has not always been bipartisan, including in 2006, when then-Senator Biden voted against raising the debt ceiling in protest of the Iraq war and tax cuts.
This time, however, Republicans have not called for anything in exchange.
