Heather Cox Richardson, PhD American Historian
September 27, 2021
Today, the Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it.
Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the government operating and keep it from defaulting on its debt—debt incurred before Biden took office—but they actually filibustered it, meaning it could not pass with a simple majority vote.
The Republicans will demand 60 votes to pass the measure in the hope of forcing Democrats to pass it themselves, alone, under the system of budget reconciliation.
This is an astonishing position. The Republicans are taking the country hostage to undercut the Democrats. If Congress does not fund the government by Thursday, the government will shut down. And if the country goes into default sometime in mid-October, the results will be catastrophic.
We are in this position now because Congress last December funded the government through this September 30 as part of a huge bill. The new fiscal year starts on October 1, and if the government is not funded, it will have to shut down, ending all federal activities that are not considered imperative. This year, such activities would include a wide range of programs enacted to combat the economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.
Republicans have said they are willing to pass a stand-alone funding bill. That is, they are willing to continue to spend money going forward, even though to do so at the rate they want means raising the debt ceiling. Indeed, Senators Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Richard Shelby (R-AL) joined McConnell today to try to pass a new funding bill that would provide disaster relief to Louisiana and Alabama in the wake of Hurricane Ida and fund the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). They complained that “disaster assistance is long overdue” and that “it’s critical” to extend flood insurance “so homeowners are covered come the next storm.”
But while willing to add to the debt, they refuse either to raise taxes or to raise or suspend the debt ceiling that would enable the government to pay for it.
The debt ceiling is the amount of money Congress authorizes the government to borrow. Congress started authorizing a general amount of debt during World War I to give the government more flexibility in borrowing by simply agreeing to an upper limit rather than by specifying different issues of debt, as it had always done before. That debt limit is not connected directly to any individual bill, and it is not an appropriation for any specific program. Nowadays, it simply enables the government to borrow money to pay for programs in laws already passed. If the debt ceiling is not raised when necessary, the government will default on its debts, creating a financial catastrophe.
So, while a measure to fund the government is forward looking, enabling the government to spend money, a measure to raise the debt ceiling is backward looking. It enables the government to pay the bills it has already run up.
Not funding the government means it will have to shut down; not paying our debts means catastrophe. Both of these measures will hobble the economic recovery underway; refusing to manage the debt ceiling will collapse the economy altogether and crash our international standing just as President Biden is trying to reassert the strength of democracy on the world stage.
Led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republicans are trying to tie the debt ceiling to the idea that Democrats are big spenders. They are determined to stop the passage of Biden’s signature infrastructure packages, both on the table this week: a smaller bipartisan package that funds road and bridge repair as well as the spread of broadband into rural areas, and a larger package that funds child care and elder care infrastructure, as well as measures to combat climate change, over the next ten years.
Both infrastructure measures are popular, and if they become laws, they will reverse the process of dismantling the active New Deal government in which Republicans have engaged since 1981. The Republicans are determined to prevent at least Biden’s larger package from passing. Killing it will keep in place their efforts to whittle the government down even further, while it will also destroy Biden’s signature legislative effort.
But the Republican link of the debt ceiling to Biden’s infrastructure package is disingenuous.
Raising the debt ceiling will enable the government to pay for debts it has already incurred. The Republicans themselves voted three times during Trump’s presidency to raise that ceiling, while they added $7.8 trillion to the national debt, bringing it to its current level of $28 trillion. Further, Biden has vowed to pay for his new package in part by restoring some—not all—of the corporate taxes and taxes on our wealthiest citizens that the Republicans slashed in 2017.
This, Republicans utterly reject.
McConnell maintains that he does not want the U.S. to default on its debt; he just wants to force the Democrats to shoulder the responsibility for handling it, enabling Republicans to paint them as spendthrifts.
It is an extraordinary abdication of responsibility, driving the U.S. toward a disastrous fiscal cliff in order to gain partisan advantage. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns that a default “could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.” Financial services firm Moody's Analytics warned that a default would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth.
The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt. Today Senate Republicans voted to make that happen.
In 1866, the year after the Civil War ended, Congress dealt with a similar challenge to the national debt. Democrats eager to undermine the United States wanted to protect the debt the Confederates had run up to rebel against the government, while demanding that the debt the United States had incurred to fight that war be renegotiated. Recognizing the ultimate power of financing to determine the fate of the nation, the Republicans in charge of the federal government settled the issue of the debts assumed by the two sides by writing their terms into the Fourteenth Amendment.
To pull the financial rug out from under former Confederates so they could not raise money to go back to war, the Republicans wrote in the fourth section of the amendment that “all…debts, obligations, and claims” of the former Confederacy “shall be held illegal and void.”
And, to keep the Democrats from destroying the government, the Republicans wrote into the Fourteenth Amendment that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law…, shall not be questioned.”
The Democrats will likely split today’s measure in two so they can fund the government ahead of Thursday’s deadline and focus on the infrastructure bills also on the table this week. They will deal with the debt ceiling themselves, later.
Notes:
https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-democrats-object-to-cassidy-mcconnell-shelby-kennedy-proposal-to-fund-the-government-provide-disaster-relief-extend-nfip
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/27/republicans-block-bill-shutdown-debt-ceiling-514405
@phranny saidEisenhower Republicans never would have done this. Nixon Republicans never would have done this. Hell, even Bush Republicans never would have done this.
Heather Cox Richardson, PhD American Historian
September 27, 2021
Today, the Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it.
Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the government operating and keep it from defaultin ...[text shortened]... nfip
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/27/republicans-block-bill-shutdown-debt-ceiling-514405
This is another example of the depths to which the unAmerican Trump Republicans have sunk.
@suzianne saidTrump would NEVER HAVE tried to borrow $5T. He'd do it another way. He's a businessman, you know.
Eisenhower Republicans never would have done this. Nixon Republicans never would have done this. Hell, even Bush Republicans never would have done this.
This is another example of the depths to which the unAmerican Trump Republicans have sunk.
Are you aware that Biden is going to renege on his promise to not tax those earning under $400,000??
@AverageJoe1
So those two things makes Trump the real POTUS?
You are sounding more and more desperate as time goes on.
You bitch about Biden who inherited a pile of shyte from Trump, children in cages, or did you forget about THAT bit of Trumpian inhumanity?
Ripping infants from moms arms. Among the worse days for the US and you figure they deserved it since ALL migrants are either drug lords or mules, right?
@averagejoe1 saidSpending money that you didn't earn or borrow is stealing.
Trump would NEVER HAVE tried to borrow $5T. He'd do it another way. He's a businessman, you know.
Are you aware that Biden is going to renege on his promise to not tax those earning under $400,000??
@sonhouse saidI'm getting bored to death. Wasn't Trump president back in the 70's? Jesus. MGH....Help!!!!!
@AverageJoe1
So those two things makes Trump the real POTUS?
You are sounding more and more desperate as time goes on.
You bitch about Biden who inherited a pile of shyte from Trump, children in cages, or did you forget about THAT bit of Trumpian inhumanity?
Ripping infants from moms arms. Among the worse days for the US and you figure they deserved it since ALL migrants are either drug lords or mules, right?
@phranny saidthis is lie...democrats do not need even one republican vote to raise the debt ceiling
Heather Cox Richardson, PhD American Historian
September 27, 2021
Today, the Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it.
Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the government operating and keep it from defaultin ...[text shortened]... nfip
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/27/republicans-block-bill-shutdown-debt-ceiling-514405
@mott-the-hoople saidRepublicans are filibustering so no. There's a 60-vote threshold until Republicans remove their objection.
this is lie...democrats do not need even one republican vote to raise the debt ceiling
@suzianne saidPlease, don't be like Sonhouse. Hard to read.
Eisenhower Republicans never would have done this. Nixon Republicans never would have done this. Hell, even Bush Republicans never would have done this.
This is another example of the depths to which the unAmerican Trump Republicans have sunk.
The American political system is completely broken.
How the hell is it possible that a small group can hold the whole government hostage? How is it possible that all these bills have multiple issues and are all tied in together?
What sort of madness would make scoring political points more important than keeping the country running?
Seriously. You yanks need to change that system. And I presume booting Florida, Texas and Mississippi out of your country would be a good begin.
@averagejoe1 saidWhen trump became president US natiopnal debt was at 20*10e12 $ When he left they were at 28...
Trump would NEVER HAVE tried to borrow $5T. He'd do it another way. He's a businessman, you know.
Are you aware that Biden is going to renege on his promise to not tax those earning under $400,000??
So he borrowed $8T, and you are wrong here.
Plus Trump borrowed massively when economics were well....
Oh he is a businessman his Mantra is get my pockets full, don't care about others.
@shavixmir saidAmerica will ultimately legislate/litigate itself out of existence.
The American political system is completely broken.
How the hell is it possible that a small group can hold the whole government hostage? How is it possible that all these bills have multiple issues and are all tied in together?
What sort of madness would make scoring political points more important than keeping the country running?
Seriously. You yanks need to cha ...[text shortened]... tem. And I presume booting Florida, Texas and Mississippi out of your country would be a good begin.
There are two states, CA and HI, which could secede from the union and survive as independent nations. Let the other 44 figure out how to cope with FL, TX, TN, and KY. Maybe try to sell TX back to Mexico? Not sure they'd want it now though.
@averagejoe1 saidDear Joe - I'm afraid your post misses some important points.
Trump would NEVER HAVE tried to borrow $5T. He'd do it another way. He's a businessman, you know.
Are you aware that Biden is going to renege on his promise to not tax those earning under $400,000??
1. Mitch McConnell voted to raise the debt ceiling several times when Trump was in office; now when Joe Biden in in office Mitch is (all of a sudden) concerned about the national debt, and will not vote to raise the ceiling.
2. Joe Biden's is not trying to borrow 5 trillion dollars. The bulk of this spending will be paid for from tax revenue on those earning more then $400,000 per year.
3. Be careful before boosting Donald Trump as a businessman. He had to declare bankruptcy no less than 6 times, and is now struggling to pay his bills. I don't recall Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, or Howard Schultz having those problems.
@mchill saidAll of past govt activities pale in comparison to what is happening, i will just say that up to now, all of that borrowing is standard operating procedure with positive results, ..all of trumps moves created millions of jobs. Note that you conveniently omitted that part, as Biden’s economy is going in the other direction, no jobs because no one wants to take a job because of what he does.
Dear Joe - I'm afraid your post misses some important points.
1. Mitch McConnell voted to raise the debt ceiling several times when Trump was in office; now when Joe Biden in in office Mitch is (all of a sudden) concerned about the national debt, and will not vote to raise the ceiling.
2. Joe Biden's is not trying to borrow 5 trillion dollars. The bulk of this spending ...[text shortened]... lls. I don't recall Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, or Howard Schultz having those problems.
As to trump’s business sense, why don’t liberals understand that bankruptcy is simply a tool, a vehicle, in the business world. It is there for a purpose, it was created, allowed by the government. You must think that through and realize that it was OK to do that. Note that you omit his unbelievable savvy and business sense with the creation of everything else that he has done. The Trump Tower and everything else.
As far as my missing some points, you guys have your heads in the sand, you will not realize that Biden is indeed going to tax people who make less than $400,000. I think I will do a thread on that in a moment.
He just stated that taxes will pay for the 5 trillion. Do you think he’s only going to tax the rich folks? Do you really think that?
Trump did his stuff without blatant lies. Biden is lying unbelievably, and one is 'no tax increase on those under $400K.
So, a blatant liar. Write back ad nauseum about Trump lies, but all I can say to that is, we'd best be aware of today's president, not yesterday's.
You know, some lies are almost innocent, let's call them wishful thinking,,,,,,,like Biden saying all the Americans would be extracted from Afghan. But, to get elected (as did Bush saying read my lips) he promised no new tax. Now THAT was a lie, meant to deceive.