McConnell says GOP won’t help Democrats pay for ‘socialist shopping list’ despite Yellen’s debt ceiling demand

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday doubled his pledge that Republicans will not vote to raise the debt ceiling after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on Congress to pass an increase in the limit by regular order , which means at least 10 Senate Republicans should vote to break a filibuster.

“I thought my colleagues were excited to present yet another tax and reckless spending madness to the American people,” said McConnell, R-Ky., Said. “Shouldn’t Democrats be proud of having all the debt they need?”

McConnell called on all Republicans to vote against raising the debt ceiling in protest against the $ 3.5 trillion spending plan Democrats plan to push forward as part of reconciliation budgetary. By using this procedural gamble, Democrats can bypass the Senate filibuster and eliminate Republicans.

GOP leader said Democrats should “have full ownership” of their “socialist shopping list” and therefore raise the debt ceiling themselves using the budget reconciliation process which allows them to do so without votes of the GOP.

But Yellen on Monday responded that Congress should raise the limit in a bipartisan fashion, as it has done in the past. She specifically noted that raising the debt ceiling is not technically linked to any specific bill.

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“[I]increasing or suspending the debt ceiling does not increase public spending, nor does it authorize spending for future budget proposals; it just allows the treasury to pay for spending already passed, ”she said. “In recent years, Congress has addressed the debt limit through a regular ordinance, with broad bipartisan support.

McConnell countered that the enormity of the Democrats’ spending plans requires extraordinary action on the part of the Republicans.

The $ 3.5 trillion in spending would be on top of the $ 1.9 trillion spending bill Democrats passed earlier this year, the roughly $ 1,000 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill that the Senate is set to pass and the several trillion coronavirus relief the government has distributed in 2020.

“I understand that the administration sent the Secretary of the Treasury to argue that historically the two sides have addressed the debt ceiling together,” he said.

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“Of course, it is our fellow Democrats in the Senate who are not interested in what is historically normal,” McConnell added. “Their borrowing and spending is historically abnormal. Democrats keep bragging about the madness and revolution of their partisan vision.”

Republicans, in the eyes of many, have lost their credibility on the issue of fiscal responsibility. They criticized former President Barack Obama for his spending. But when they took power under the Trump administration, the federal deficit increased dramatically, even before the coronavirus pandemic.

Still, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Republicans’ most publicized deficit-raising policy, the 2017 tax cuts, are expected to increase the national deficit by $ 1.5 trillion over 10 years. That’s well under half the cost of what Democrats plan to pass through in fiscal reconciliation, as part of President Biden’s more than $ 5,000 billion program.

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“Democrats have all the existing tools they need to raise the debt limit on a partisan basis. If they want 50 tight Democratic votes to spend billions and billions more, they can find 50 Democratic votes for fund it, ”McConnell added. “Our colleagues seem convinced that President Sanders’ vision is worth putting a huge toll on our children and grandchildren.”

Despite McConnell’s threats, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Said it was all a bluff. “At the end of the day, Republicans understand that in the midst of COVID and climate change, they are not going to destroy the global economy,” Sanders said. “The United States government has always paid its bills and it will pay its bills.”

Democrats did not include anything about raising the debt ceiling in their budget resolution, the text of which was released on Monday. This resolution will allow them to use budget reconciliation to bypass Republicans. They can, however, include an increase in the debt ceiling in the reconciliation bill.

Thanks to a move by the parliamentarian touted by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., Democrats can also revisit their reconciliation vehicle from earlier this year to raise the debt ceiling completely separately from their bill. of expenses.

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Democrats plan to start reviewing their reconciliation plan later this week. But they face a minefield of obstacles in both the House and the Senate, where small majorities leave little room for error.

Moderate lawmakers are already voicing concerns about the economic effects of so much government spending. But if the Democrats’ plans are too small to appease those lawmakers – like Rep. Josh Gottheimer, DN.J., and Sen Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. – then leaders risk alienating progressives like Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y.

Kelly Headlights of Fox News contributed to this report.