The White House is going on the offensive in its debt ceiling standoff, trying to portray Democrats as the “adults in the room” as Republicans risk putting the federal government into default.
With only two weeks before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen projects her department will not be able to pay the country’s financial obligations on time, the administration argues the debt limit needs to be raised because of congressional Republicans and former President Donald Trump’s policies, not theirs.
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“Raising the debt limit is usually a bipartisan undertaking. And it should be. That’s what is not happening today,” President Joe Biden said in a speech at the White House on Monday. “The reason we have to raise the debt limit is, in part, because of the reckless tax and spending policies under the previous Trump administration.”
“In four years, they incurred nearly $8 trillion,” Biden continued. “In four years, $8 trillion in additional debt and bills we have to now pay off. That’s more than a quarter of the entire debt incurred now outstanding after more than 200 years.”
He added that Congress voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under Trump, “each time with Democratic support.”
“But now [congressional Republicans] won’t raise it, even though they are responsible for more than $8 trillion in bills incurred in four years under the previous administration,” Biden said. “That’s what we’d be paying off.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki amplified this messaging during Monday’s briefing.
“Despite the fact that under the last administration, nearly $8 trillion in bills was compiled — I think I have a little chart here just to give you a little visual — almost $8 trillion during the Trump administration, $676 billion during the Biden administration,” she told reporters while pointing to a chart illustrating these numbers.
She pushed back against the view that the debt ceiling needs to be raised because of the Biden administration’s spending agenda.
“So what Sen. McConnell is refusing to do is to pay the debts of what were rung up under his leadership when he was in the Senate — still continues to be, of course — and when Trump was president,” Psaki continued. “The debt limit is about paying for bills we have already spent. It is not about — it is not about initiatives that we’re talking about and debating now.
Biden urged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to permit Democrats to increase the Treasury Department’s credit limit beyond the $28 trillion on the books using a fast-track parliamentary process without jeopardizing his $3.5 trillion social welfare and climate spending framework.
It’s not a new argument after months of waiting for a bipartisan solution, according to former Democratic consultant Christopher Hahn.
“They have brought it up several times, and the members of the Senate who intend to block it know exactly what the debt goes to pay for,” the Aggressive Progressive podcast host told the Washington Examiner.
But for presidential historian David Pietrusza, the debt ceiling debate’s timing as Biden attempts to muscle his spending priorities through Congress complicates the White House’s message.
“The unprecedented amount of spending and debt proposed by the White House and Democratic progressives only adds yet another dimension to an already heated debate,” he said.
Biden and the White House contend his spending agenda can be covered by, for instance, raising taxes on corporations and people earning more than $400,000 a year. Republican strategist Brian Johnson pointed to those tax increases and said the Democrats’ problems weren’t limited to the technical complexities of the debt ceiling.
“Republicans are advantaged by folks outside the Acela corridor not wanting the IRS spying on their bank accounts or to pay more for a can of dip,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if real America knows the inner workings of the debt ceiling issue or not, all they know and need to know is the majority party wants to raise their taxes without involving Republicans, so they sure as heck fix the debt ceiling issue without involving Republicans too.”
McConnell has argued if Democratic majorities want to pass large spending increases on their own without GOP votes or input, they should do the same with raising the debt ceiling.
Polling suggests voters will blame Democrats and Republicans if they don’t raise the debt ceiling and the country’s credit rating is downgraded.
An Ipsos-Reuters poll published last week found roughly two-thirds of respondents were concerned the federal government would not raise the debt ceiling together. This included nearly 4 in 5 Democrats and half of Republicans. A plurality of 30% said congressional Republicans would be responsible if a deal was not reached, though 21% primarily blamed congressional Democrats, and another 16% pointed the finger at Biden.
For David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, the debt ceiling fight was another reason voters tend to dislike Capitol Hill.
“The visual of partisan grandstanding while citizens suffer reinforces how government payments can be delayed and held hostage by members of Congress who have motivations other than the spirit of their oath of office,” the pollster said.
Shai Akabas, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s economic policy director, warned not raising or suspending the debt ceiling could disrupt the country’s COVID-19 pandemic recovery, increase household and business borrowing costs, and wreak havoc for global financial markets.
“BPC has worked with several bipartisan members of Congress on a solution that would allow the president to request a debt limit suspension that would go into effect unless Congress proactively voted to disapprove of it, and along with that request, the president would submit a debt reduction proposal, which would kick off a debate in Congress about policies to address our growing deficits,” he said.
Biden criticized Republicans as “reckless and dangerous” for not collaborating with Democrats over the debt ceiling. But despite his harsh words, he told reporters he had yet to speak with McConnell personally about the issue.
“It’s hypocritical, dangerous, and disgraceful,” Biden said. “If you don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way.”
In a letter sent to the White House before Biden’s speech, McConnell reminded the president he opposed raising the debt ceiling in 2003, 2004, and 2006 as a senator — though no filibusters were preventing those extensions.
“Republicans’ position is simple,” McConnell wrote. “We have no list of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well.”
McConnell is pressuring Democrats to raise the debt ceiling through budget reconciliation rather than another simple majority process known as unanimous consent. Senate Republicans last week thwarted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from using the latter procedure.
Democrats would prefer to pass a “clean” debt ceiling bill and clear their social welfare and climate spending package through reconciliation, arguing reconciliation’s amendment process is too unpredictable for the country’s borrowing authority.
Psaki implored Republicans on Monday to “get out of the way” because Democrats were “happy to be the adults in the room.”
“Why let Republicans off the hook? This is their debt,” she said while standing beside a chart. “Republicans spent like drunken sailors over the last four years.”
Florida Sen. Rick Scott, chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, has earmarked the debt ceiling as a possible 2022 midterm election cycle issue.
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“They’re going to get held accountable for it,” he told NBC, referring to the Democrats.
