


Mum’s the word among Bay State democrats.
After railing against inaction on the part of conservative colleagues as Congress moved to recess ahead of the holiday weekend, a collective diatribe which continued at home and on social media through Friday and Saturday, the state’s congressional delegation grew oddly quiet the day after news spread that President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had struck a deal to avoid a national default.
Ahead of the “agreement in principle” negotiated between the White House and Speaker’s Office, most of the state’s congressional representatives and senators were loudly calling on Republicans to move on from their demands for spending cuts to coincide with any talk of raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
“Republicans are threatening a default on our debt—just so they can rip away healthcare & life-saving assistance for vulnerable people,” said re.. Ayanna Pressley in a tweet on Friday.
However, after the deal was announced late Saturday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took to the Sunday shows to assure Americans that a default was not imminent, signaling his willingness to push his party members into compliance with Biden’s negotiated deal.
When asked if he could guarantee the U.S. would not default on the debt, Jeffries told CBS on Sunday morning, simply, “yes.”
While he spoke and for most of the day after, the social media accounts of Massachusetts’ House Democrats remained silent on the matter, and none of the lawmakers issued a statement on the debt ceiling or responded to the Herald’s questions about the deal.
That may be because the person responsible for getting Democrats in line with the plan is none other than House Minority Whip Katherine Clark. The Revere Congresswoman tore into her conservative colleagues on the House floor Thursday before holding an end-of-week rally alongside veterans concerned at potential cuts at the VA.
“As we face unprecedented calamity, Republicans have decided to send Congress home. They want to ignore this crisis all weekend. Just put it out of their minds,” Clark said in Revere on Friday.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, told CNN on Friday that Democrats would support the President’s plan — at least enough of them to get it passed.
“The President has got a lot of loyalty in this party. I am always going to vote on what I think is right, that’s my principle, but there are an awful lot of Democrats who are just going to do whatever the President says,” he said.
The House may vote on the plan as soon as Wednesday.
Herald wire service contributed.