Democrats signal they’ll accept short-term debt ceiling hike
BNN Bloomberg
Democrats signaled they would take up Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s offer to raise the U.S. debt ceiling into December, alleviating the immediate risk of a default but raising the prospect of another bruising political fight near the end of the year.
Democrats signaled they would take up Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s offer to raise the U.S. debt ceiling into December, alleviating the immediate risk of a default but raising the prospect of another bruising political fight near the end of the year.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t respond publicly, but Democrats leaving a meeting with him Wednesday said they were ready to push through a short-term increase in the debt limit. Still, they said they will continue to oppose using a process called reconciliation to pass a longer-term increase in the limit with only Democratic votes, which McConnell has demanded.
The Senate meantime Wednesday afternoon delayed an attempt to advance legislation to suspend the debt limit, which Republicans were poised to block.
McConnell’s offer was designed to call Democrats’ bluff after they said the reconciliation process was too lengthy to be used as a tool to boost the borrowing limit before the deadline estimated for later this month, according to a person familiar with his thinking. It also publicly showed Republicans were willing to be flexible with a default edging closer, the person said.
It also came after President Joe Biden late Tuesday remarked to reporters about discussions underway among Senate Democrats to temporarily change the chamber’s filibuster rule to allow the debt ceiling measure to go through, saying it was a “real possibility.” Still, all Democrats in the Senate would have to go along with that, and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia told reporters Wednesday he wouldn’t support doing that.
Democrats said they were still waiting to see McConnell’s proposal in writing, but said the two-month extension would give the party time to focus on internal negotiations over Biden’s US$4 trillion economic agenda, without spending weeks litigating the debt ceiling on the Senate floor this month.
