Senate Democrats postponed their Wednesday vote to raise the debt ceiling that Republicans planned to block, huddling to weigh an offer from the GOP to extend the nation’s borrowing limit until December.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, issued a statement just ahead of the planned vote, offering Democrats a solution to avert a debt crisis that would occur in less than two weeks without an increase in the borrowing limit. Under the deal, Republicans would agree to a short-term debt limit increase that would last only until December, which McConnell said would provide Democrats plenty of time to use a budgetary tactic that would enable them to pass a debt limit increase without a single GOP vote.
MCCONNELL OFFERS SHORT-TERM DEBT LIMIT INCREASE AMID STANDOFF WITH DEMOCRATS
Senate Republicans had vowed to block the House-passed bill that would extend the debt ceiling until December of 2022. Republicans want Democrats to pass a long-term debt limit increase without requiring a single GOP vote.
McConnell said the plan he offered Wednesday provides Democrats the time they need to pass a long-term debt limit increase unilaterally while averting the crisis Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned would occur if Congress does not raise the borrowing limit by mid-October.
“It must be resolved immediately,” Yellen said Wednesday.
Yellen warned Congress earlier this month that it must raise the debt by Oct. 18 to avoid the nation defaulting on its loans and impacting the Treasury’s ability to send Social Security checks and other critical payments.
Republicans and Democrats have been battling over a debt limit increase since Congress returned from a summer recess.
The legislation requires 60 votes to advance, and Republicans won’t provide the votes needed from their party, protesting a plan by Democrats to pass a bill unilaterally that would spend trillions of dollars on a social welfare spending package the GOP believes will blow up the debt and damage the economy.
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Republicans said if Democrats don’t want to go it alone on increasing the debt limit, they can win GOP votes by abandoning the big social welfare spending package.
“If Democrats abandon their efforts to ram through another historically reckless taxing and spending spree that will hurt families and help China, a more traditional bipartisan governing conversation could be possible,” McConnell said.
