Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not again help Democrats extend the government’s borrowing authority
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he would not again help Democrats extend the government’s borrowing authority, raising fresh doubts about how Congress will avert a federal default when a temporary patch expires in December.Senate approved a $480 billion boost in the federal debt limit
McConnell said Friday that he made his decision to refuse future help because of his opposition to the huge domestic bill and because of a “bizarre spectacle” on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer . After the bill passed, Schumer criticized Republicans for trying to push the country over “the cliff’s edge” by opposing the debt limit extension.
At least two Democratic senators, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, have said they oppose doing that, effectively thwarting that option. Republicans said one factor in providing Democrats the two-month lifeline was fear that Manchin and Sinema might decide to support ending filibusters for debt limit legislation.
McConnell added: “This childish behavior only further alienated the Republican members who helped facilitate this short-term patch. It has poisoned the well even further.”Since summer, McConnell repeatedly said Republicans would not assist Democrats in pushing a debt ceiling extension through the Senate by helping them reach the 60 votes needed for most legislation. He cited Democrats’ proposed 10-year, $3.5 trillion social, economic and tax measure, which Republicans unanimously oppose.
Democrats say they won’t use that process, which they call too cumbersome. But it would also require them to raise the debt limit by a specific dollar amount that, they fear, Republicans will make a staple of campaign ads attacking them.
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