The Biden White House is punting on the debt ceiling standoff, putting the responsibility for ensuring America can pay its bills squarely on the shoulders of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Tuesday that the administration backs Schumer’s proposal for Democrats to “do it alone if Republicans refuse to help” but referred questions about the details to Schumer’s office.
WHITE HOUSE GOES ON OFFENSE AGAINST GOP ON DEBT CEILING AND TRUMP-ERA DEFICITS
Her comments mark a departure from the White House‘s prior position. Senior officials told the Washington Examiner in early September that President Joe Biden viewed addressing the debt limit as a bipartisan “responsibility.” At the time, the White House sought to pressure GOP lawmakers into joining Democrats in raising the cap for what would have been the 81st time in the past seven decades.
To that end, the White House tied a debt limit vote to the continuing resolution offered by the White House ahead of the Sept. 30 government funding deadline. But House Republicans killed that bill Monday evening, forcing Democrats to move forward without help from across the aisle.
“We obviously wanted to do this in a bipartisan fashion, as we’ve talked about quite a bit in here,” Psaki said. “It’s a shared responsibility. It’s been done at times in a bipartisan manner in the past.”
“It’s also our hope that if Senator McConnell isn’t going to help us avoid a default and a shutdown, at least he’ll get out of the way and let Democrats do it alone so we can avoid a default, and right now that question remains up in the air,” she added.
Psaki’s comments referenced Senate Republicans’ decision earlier in the day to block Schumer’s unanimous consent request to allow Democrats to hold a simple majority vote to raise the debt ceiling.
One White House official told the Washington Examiner that the move “made no sense,” especially considering Democrats did the opposite in 2006, when Republicans and the Bush White House sought a debt ceiling increase.
That official acknowledged Republicans’ desire not to have their “fingerprints” on a debt increase proposed by Biden and Democrats but said that blocking Democrats from raising the ceiling on their own unnecessarily jeopardizes the economy and is just “obstruction for obstruction’s sake.”
Deputy National Economic Council Director Bharat Ramamurti voiced similar confusion on Twitter earlier in the day.
Rs: We support funding the government, providing disaster aid, and avoiding default
Ds: Here’s a bill that does that
Rs: We are filibustering that bill because Ds should avoid default themselves
Ds: OK, we will avoid default ourselves
Rs: Actually, we will block that too
— Bharat Ramamurti (@BharatRamamurti) September 28, 2021
The debt ceiling saga was further complicated Tuesday when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has repeatedly warned Congress of the perils of failing to address the debt limit, announced that the U.S. government is on track to surpass its fiscal commitments on Oct. 18, something economists refer to as the “X Date.”
“At that point, we expect Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly,” Yellen wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “It is imperative that Congress swiftly addresses the debt limit. If it does not, America would default for the first time in history.”
Still, Republican strategist Adam Goodman told the Washington Examiner that he views the GOP’s debt posturing and Democratic squabbles over the president’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package as “a kabuki dance.”
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“The GOP will hold the line, force massive concessions with the likely help of Manchin and others, and end up with infrastructure plus some relatively smaller investments in the other areas Biden and Democrats were trying to make the make/break line,” he said in a statement. “There may be a technical shutdown, but given the pressures of COVID on the nation and this Administration it would prove short-lived.”
