Both of the state’s senators have signed onto a letter urging the Biden Administration to go around House Republicans and prevent a national debt default by using his executive authority to raise the borrowing ceiling.
“We write to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states: ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned,’” the letter reads, in part.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, along with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, among others, say a plan presented by House Republicans, the “Limit, Save, Grow Act,” is unacceptable as written and not a serious attempt at protecting the global economy from the impacts of a U.S. debt default.
“It is unfortunate that Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate are not acting in good faith. Instead, Republicans have made it clear that they are prepared to hold our entire economy hostage unless you accede to their demands to reduce the deficit on the backs of working families. That is simply unacceptable,” they write.
President Biden is in Asia for a meeting of the G7 while representative negotiators from the White House and Congress iron out the details of a compromise that the president, before he left for the summit, said should prevent the nation from defaulting on its debts.
“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget, that America will not default,” the president said Wednesday.
Without action by lawmakers the country could default on its debt in the coming months, potentially as soon as June, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The impact of a default, the senators write, would be catastrophic for both the U.S. and global economies. This also isn’t the first time this problem has cropped up, they say.
“Over the past 63 years, the national debt limit has been raised nearly 80 times – 49 times when a Republican has been president and 29 times when a Democrat has been president. In fact, the debt ceiling was raised 18 times under President Ronald Reagan, seven times under President George W. Bush, and three times under President Donald Trump – when the national debt increased by some $8 trillion – with no strings attached,” they wrote.
“Indeed, Bush and Trump tax cuts for the wealthy are the driving force behind the increasing debt that Republicans now claim to care about,” they continue.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, said that Executive and House negotiators were “going to work until we can get it done.”
An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would allow for Congress to pay for spending it has already approved.