Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Republicans are willing to approve an emergency short-term extension of the U.S. debt limit.
In a statement on Wednesday, McConnell said, “The unified Democratic government had two and a half months to address the debt limit through reconciliation. Instead, they drifted to the doorstep of yet another self-created Democrat crisis. Whether through miscalculation or a deliberate effort to bully their own members into wrecking the Senate, top Democrats have risked adding a default crisis to the inflation crisis, border crisis, and Afghanistan crisis they have already created.”
He went on to say Republicans have promised they would “assist in expediting” the budget reconciliation process which would let Democrats increase the debt ceiling with just 51 votes.
“To protect the American people from a near-term Democrat-created crisis, we will also allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December. This will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation,” McConnell continued.
Finally, he suggested that 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.”
Read the statement below:
My new statement on the Democrats’ self-created debt limit crisis: pic.twitter.com/XwuqyS9oZ0
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) October 6, 2021
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that it is a “real possibility” that Senate Democrats could make a change to the filibuster rules to raise the limit to avoid a defaulting on the nation’s debt, as IJR reported.
The filibuster is a procedural hurdle used to delay or block legislation and means that most bills need at least 60 votes to pass the chamber. In the Senate, which is divided 50-50, Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to vote for legislation for it to pass.
Some Democrats have discussed making changes to the filibuster to pass an increase of the debt ceiling, the amount of money the U.S. can borrow to meet its existing obligations, and avoid defaulting on its debt which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says would yield “catastrophic” results.
“It would be catastrophic to not pay the government’s bills, for us to be in a position where we lacked the resources to pay the government’s bills,” she said during an appearance on CNBC on Tuesday, adding, “I fully expect it would cause a recession as well.”
Senate Republicans previously signaled that they would not provide at least 10 votes to lift the debt ceiling. They argue that Democrats should use a process known as budget reconciliation.
In his offer, McConnell still insists that Democrats use reconciliation to extend the debt ceiling by themselves in December.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called McConnell’s offer a “step forward,” and added that he hopes senators can “now negotiate a process that… creates a long term solution.”
However, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the No. 3 Democrat in the chamber, said, “We’re not doing reconciliation” to address the debt ceiling.
