Senate Republicans, despite increasing pressure to help Democrats raise the nation’s shrinking borrowing limit, vowed to block another attempt to advance a measure increasing the debt ceiling ahead of an Oct. 18 deadline.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, plans to bring to the floor a House-passed bill on Wednesday that would suspend the nation’s borrowing limit until December 2022.
For the second time in two weeks, Republicans plan to object, which would block the Senate from passing the measure with 51 votes and would move the nation one step closer to running out of authority to pay its loans.
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The GOP won’t allow Schumer to advance a debt ceiling increase quickly with a procedure called unanimous consent, which would clear the way for the measure to pass without any Republican support.
“I can’t imagine that would happen,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters Tuesday after a closed-door lunch with party lawmakers.
The move will leave Democrats unable to advance the debt ceiling increase passed by the House unless they can win the backing of 10 Republicans in a roll call vote.
But GOP lawmakers have no interest in helping Democrats raise the debt ceiling.
McConnell and other Republicans say Democrats must pass the measure without any GOP involvement. They argue the debt limit hike will be used to pay off a massive social welfare spending package Democrats plan to pass without GOP input or votes.
“They have no problem reusing the party-line process over and over to spend trillions and transform the country,” Manchin said. “But now, for this purpose only, they suddenly and mysteriously find it unappealing.”
Democrats could pass the measure using a budgetary tactic called reconciliation, which circumvents the 60-vote threshold.
McConnell has called on Democrats to use that approach for several weeks, but Democrats say the GOP must vote to help them raise the debt limit because the debt grew mostly due to Trump-era tax cuts that decreased revenue.
Schumer said Tuesday there is not enough time to use reconciliation because there are several procedural steps that could not be completed by Oct. 18, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the government would run out of money to pay the nation’s debts.
“The Senate will hold that vote tomorrow, and once again, every senator will face a choice,” Schumer said Tuesday. “We can stop this Republican-manufactured debt ceiling crisis in its tracks, or Republicans can keep driving our country ever closer to the first default in American history.”
One Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said she was weighing whether to vote to advance the debt ceiling Wednesday, citing concern for the nation’s credit rating if the Treasury stops paying the bills.
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But Democrats will need nine additional Republicans to vote with Murkowski, and that’s unlikely, GOP leaders warned Tuesday.
“It ought to be hard to borrow all the money they have to borrow to finance their big tax and spending spree,” said Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican. “[Democrats] should deliver the votes to do it. We will insist on that. There will be another vote tomorrow in which it will be clear that is the path they need to take.”
