Congress is on the verge of narrowly averting a catastrophic debt default — and some Democrats want it to be for the last time.
The …
Congress is on the verge of narrowly averting a catastrophic debt default — and some Democrats want it to be for the last time. The calls for taking the near-annual fight out of lawmakers’ hands are coming from prominent voices such as House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who want to eliminate the debt limit in its current form. They argue that members of Congress should not be able to use the threat of a debt default as political leverage ever again — an approach that would respond to GOP stonewalling by playing some hardball of their own. Although lawmakers are poised to stave off a national default barely a week before the Oct.18 deadline, when the U.S. is projected to breach the debt ceiling, they’ll have to deal with it again in December when the latest short-term extension expires. That’s leading some Democrats to propose longer-term solutions, like taking the authority away from Congress or exempting bills related to the debt limit from the Senate filibuster rules. Yarmuth last week joined Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) in introducing a bill that would transfer the authority to raise the debt limit from Congress to the Treasury secretary. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the proposal an “excellent idea,” although she stressed Democrats are focused on averting a default now and would leave a conversation about long-term solutions for later. Boyle has also previously introduced legislation in recent years to repeal the debt limit altogether as a way to permanently eliminate a disastrous scenario that would lead to a U.S. credit downgrade, a likely recession and delayed Social Security, military salary and other essential payments made by the federal government. He renewed his push this week after Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), partly backed off their demands that Democrats use the more time-consuming and filibuster-exempt budget reconciliation process to raise the debt limit, ultimately agreeing to a short-term extension lasting into December. “While I welcome this change in stance from Sen. McConnell, we need a long-term solution to our debt ceiling dysfunction. It’s time to end the debt limit as we know it,” Boyle said. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, also called to abolish the debt ceiling.
