Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday said congressional Democrats should use the upcoming lame-duck session to eliminate the U.S. debt ceiling for good, warning that leaving the borrowing limit intact gives Republicans an opening to hold the economy hostage.
“I’d get rid of the debt ceiling altogether,” Warren (D-Mass.) told NBC’s Chuck Todd, arguing that the arbitrary limit “serves no function except to create leverage for people who are willing to blow up the economy.”
“And that’s the problem we’ve got right now,” Warren continued. “Many of these new Republicans who are coming in are people who are coming in with exactly one goal: Get Donald Trump elected in 2024. And they see that if they can create chaos in the economy, then they think that may move Donald Trump one inch closer to election. So, we’ve got to take that away from them, take care during the lame duck—take care of raising the debt limit or getting rid of it altogether.”
The U.S. is expected to reach the debt ceiling — which dictates how much money the Treasury Department can borrow to meet the country’s obligations — at some point early next year, once again raising the prospect of a default that would be disastrous for the U.S. economy, wiping out millions of jobs and eliminating trillions of dollars in household wealth.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she supports congressional action to raise the debt ceiling during the lame-duck session. Yellen has previously backed calls to completely abolish the debt ceiling, a proposal that President Joe Biden opposes.
“I think it’s just compromising the credit of the United States,” Yellen said Sunday. “Casting doubt on the willingness of the United States to pay its debt is a devastating economic self-inflicted blow.”
In the run-up to last week’s midterm elections, top Republicans in the House — including the lawmaker in line for speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — suggested they would be willing to use the debt ceiling as leverage to pursue cuts to Social Security, Medicare, climate investments, and potentially other spending.
While Republicans won far fewer House seats than expected, they’re still favored to take narrow control of the chamber, leaving Democrats with dwindling time to prevent GOP debt ceiling brinkmanship.
Asked Sunday whether the Senate will act on the debt ceiling during the lame-duck session, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said it is “something that we will look at over the next few weeks.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told ABC on Sunday that the House’s “best shot” at raising the limit “is to do it now.”
“There’s great risk to even discussing not doing it,” said Pelosi, pointing to the destructive 2011 standoff over the debt ceiling, which allowed Republicans to force spending cuts. “So this is dealing with fire when we’re talking about the stability of our credit rating.”
During an event at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) signaled that abolishing the debt ceiling is part of the bloc’s policy agenda.
Last month, dozens of congressional Democrats implored their party’s leaders to “take legislative action that will permanently undo the threat posed by the debt limit” — a call that Social Security defenders echoed.
“Democrats, including President Joe Biden, focused heavily on Social Security during the campaign,” Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, said in a statement last week. “They made sure voters knew about Republican threats to the program, and promised that Democrats would protect Social Security.”
“Now,” Lawson added, “it’s time for Democrats to keep that promise by raising or eliminating the debt ceiling in the final months of the year, so that Republicans can’t use it as leverage to force cuts to Social Security and Medicare.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 430 new monthly donors in the next 7 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy