Opening Volleys Fired as Biden, House GOP Begin Debt Ceiling Battle That May Last Till Summer

President Joe Biden, left, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in file images. (Getty Images)

News Analysis

A pitched battle matching President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats versus House Republicans led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy that could extend into summer began officially on Jan. 19 as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declared the federal government has officially reached its statutory debt ceiling.

“I respectfully request that Congress act promptly to protect the faith and credit of the United States,” Yellen told congressional leaders of both parties in a letter.

For Biden, Yellen, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), protecting the faith and credit of the country means both chambers of Congress approving an increase without conditions in the debt limit, pushing it substantially higher than the current $31.4 trillion.

For McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and their fractious Republican troops, protecting the faith and credit of the nation means halting the irresponsible deficit spending under presidents and Congresses led by both parties that produced the $31.4 trillion national debt.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at a news conference in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 12, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Biden and McCarthy, the main combatants, both earlier this week declared the other’s opening demands to be unacceptable. On Jan. 18, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated Biden’s refusal to sit down to negotiate with McCarthy on anything other than a clean bill, while a day earlier, McCarthy had declared the clean bill option “totally off the table.”

The volleys already are being fired back and forth.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who will have a key role in any negotiations involving the upper chamber, issued a blistering Jan. 19 statement accusing Republicans of planning to slash Social Security and Medicare.

“Right now, the U.S. has the strongest major economy in the world, the lowest unemployment in generations, and steadily declining inflation. As of today, Republicans are holding all of that for ransom,” Wyden said. “Republicans are threatening to tank the economy and destroy millions of jobs unless Congress slashes Medicare and Social Security.

“Either outcome will make life worse and raise costs for millions and millions of Americans.”

Wyden then repeated a Democratic talking point that’s likely to be heard over and over again in coming months.

“The debt ceiling is not about adding new spending. It’s about paying debts that the government owes—debts that were incurred under presidents of both parties. Donald Trump added trillions of dollars to the federal debt even before Congress passed any legislation related to the pandemic, but Republicans didn’t protest back then.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) speaks during a hearing in Washington on June 30, 2020. (Susan Walsh/Pool/Getty Images)

Similarly, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) denounced Democratic overspending on Jan. 19 and called on Biden and congressional Democrats to agree to negotiate. The Ways and Means chairman’s sign-off is essential to the success of any negotiated settlement that ultimately may be reached.

“The American people rightfully recognize that maintaining Washington’s status quo, which runs up massive deficits and adds trillions to our national debt, is unsustainable. They see how Democrats’ reckless spending has led to the worst spike in prices in 40 years that is robbing their paychecks,” Smith said in a statement.

“They are looking to their elected officials for leadership, not political brinksmanship,” he added. “Instead of attacking his political opponents, President Biden should be spending this time working with House Republicans to address the debt ceiling in a way that imposes some fiscal sanity. Otherwise, the President is simply scheduling America’s next debt crisis.”

The fundamental fact about the debt ceiling issue, Smith said, is that “despite federal revenues hitting an all-time high of $4.9 trillion last year, Washington still cannot keep up with its spending habit. Such unchecked spending will have dire consequences. Congress cannot continue mortgaging our children and grandchildren’s futures to borrow from foreign nations like China, while interest rates have risen more in the past year than in the last 15 years combined.”

The back and forth included Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) pointing out that Congress raised the debt ceiling with bipartisan votes on three occasions under then-President Donald Trump.

“It was the right thing to do then, and it’s the right thing to do now,” Coons said.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) questioned the Republicans’ frequent reference to families overspending on credit cards, writing on Twitter that, “since the GOP is set on using a credit card metaphor, let’s ask: What happens if you stop paying your bill? The card gets cancelled.”

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said the debt limit has been raised 80 times since the 1960s.

“Washington’s collision course with fiscal insanity MUST end. You can’t borrow your way out of debt,” Harris wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, told The Epoch Times: “There is not a proposed bill to vote on or even look at to make a decision. I think the president, GOP, and Dem leaders in Congress should negotiate and agree to raising the debt limit along with a commitment to reduce spending.”

David Carlucci, a Democratic political strategist who is a former New York state senator, told The Epoch Times that he believes the Republican strategy will fail.

“Although this is not the first time Republicans have held the national debt hostage, this and prior actions by the GOP reflect the new Republican game plan. Starting with Speaker McCarthy’s confirmation, the Republican strategy has become one big game of chicken in order to get their way.

“But this time, Republicans are playing a dangerous game. Not raising the national debt limit can lead to an economic crisis in the United States, and the financial ruin of millions of American businesses and families. Democrats should not even think about negotiating with members who think about risking the economy.”

The elephant in the room on the debt ceiling issue is the prospect of failing to raise the limit and the federal government having to close. Two liberal economists at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center issued a Jan. 19 analysis in which they claimed failure to raise the debt limit would require spending cuts or tax increases of at least $1.5 trillion in the first year and $14 trillion over the next decade.

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) (L), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and President of the Committee for Responsible Budget (CFRB) Maya MacGuineas at the 2018 Better Budget Process Summit in Washington, on Feb. 26, 2018. (Courtesy of the CFRB)

“A desire to change the course of fiscal policy should be manifested in new Congressional initiatives to change the course of future spending and taxes, not in Congressional refusal to pay bills that have arisen from previous Congressional action,” Leonard Burman and William Gale said in their analysis.

While Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas agreed that the debt ceiling should be increased as soon as possible, she encouraged Biden and Congress also to make big changes in federal spending.

“An ideal solution would be for Congress to lift the debt ceiling as soon as possible and at the same time put in place measures to improve our fiscal trajectory. This could include specific policies or processes such as a fiscal commission,” MacGuineas said.

“Attaching fiscal reforms to the debt limit was common practice in the past when both policies and processes to improve fiscal responsibility were included as part of a deal. ... Congress should return to the past model of a debt ceiling increase, legislation to improve the fiscal situation, and a broad-based understanding that the debt ceiling must be increased in a calm and timely manner. We must not threaten default. The cost is simply too high.”

At least one Senate Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, thinks there is a way to take Social Security and Medicare out of the debt ceiling debate. Manchin has approached McCarthy about creating a new congressional “trust” committee to recommend reforms designed to solidify both programs’ trust funds. Both of the massive benefit programs have trust funds that are presently projected to go bankrupt in the next two decades.

“Should we not say we should all recognize how we got there,” Manchin said in a Jan. 18 Fox Business interview while he was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Let’s take our trust funds, whether it’s Social Security, Medicare, the highway fund, we can’t let those go bankrupt. And we have a trust act, we would put together bipartisan committees for each of these trusts, to come up with solutions for how you fix it.”

A McCarthy spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment on Manchin’s proposal.

House Republicans are confident they are taking the most reasonable position, in agreeing to raise the debt ceiling in return for Democrats accepting major spending reform, according to a senior aide to a key House Republican who asked not to be identified by name.

“The recalcitrance is coming from the White House, Schumer, and the Democrats, who have said they will not negotiate. Republicans’ hand continues to be outstretched to make a deal to raise the debt ceiling while restraining our skyrocketing spending, deficit, and inflation,” the aide told The Epoch Times.

“In a divided government, the White House must negotiate with Republicans. They do not have uniparty control of our country anymore, and cannot continue crying when they do not get their way. I do believe Biden will keep refusing to discuss this right up to the moment the government shuts down. We will see how quickly that position changes when the Democrats are blamed for refusing to negotiate under any terms while we suffer.”