Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued what was a surprisingly stirring and steel-spined denunciation of Democrat attempts to worm out of using their majority to raise the debt ceiling, thereby owning the politically toxic vote going into the 2022 elections.
You can read the full statement below and it is the kind of stuff we wish we heard out of the GOP’s Capitol Hill leadership every day.
But almost as soon Sen. McConnell issued his tough statement, Chad Pergram, FOX News’ Capitol Hill senior reporter/producer and all-around political guru tweeted, “Fox is told GOPers are offering Democrats a specific dollar figure regarding a debt limit hike. But that figure is unclear”
And lo and behold, the ink wasn’t even dry, the electrons had not left the ether, when a new McConnell statement came out:
To protect the American people from a near-term Democrat-created crisis, we will also allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December.
That better not mean Republicans are going to vote FOR a debt limit increase.
We don’t care how McConnell does it, but he has to MAKE DEMOCRATS OWN INCREASING THE DEBT CEILING!
If Republicans choose not to filibuster the bill to raise the debt ceiling, that’s fine with us, as long as no Republicans vote for it when it comes to the Senate Floor. That was the ploy Democrats used in 2006 to hang increasing the debt ceiling around the necks of hapless Republicans, who were vaporized in that year’s midterm elections.
Especially going into a crucial election year, Republicans should not get suckered into voting to raise the debt ceiling when Democrats can be made do it with their majority and also be made to own the political consequences. The toll-free Capitol Switchboard (1-866-220-0044), call today and tell your Senators to vote NO on raising the debt ceiling.
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the debt limit:
“For two and a half months, Republicans have provided a clear and consistent road map for the Democratic government to raise the debt ceiling.
“Democrats have had two and a half months’ notice to use the fast-track, party-line reconciliation process which they have already used happily this year and already intend to use again.
“But the Democrats who run Washington have done nothing. They have squandered week after week after week. The Senate has been voting on mid-level nominations.
“Two and a half months later, our colleagues complain that time is running out to do their job. They are frantically asking our side for shortcuts.
“In the past two days, I have had the surreal experience of watching both the President of the United States and the Senate Majority Leader be asked about the future of the U.S. economy. Their respective responses were, quote, ‘that’s up to Mitch McConnell’ and ‘ask Mitch McConnell.’
“And what about the third Democratic leader, the Speaker of the House? Well, she’s headed to Europe. I can only presume she hopes the full faith and credit of the United States will get sorted out without her.
“That is the level of leadership and accountability the country is getting from the Washington Democrats who run the country.
“These are the leadership skills of people who spend two and a half months doing nothing and then complain they’re short on time.
“That is the attitude that has gotten Democrats a self-created inflation crisis, border crisis, Afghanistan crisis, and free-falling favorability with the American people.
“It’s not clear whether the Democratic leaders have wasted two and a half months because they simply cannot govern, or whether they are intentionally playing Russian roulette with the economy to try to bully their own members into going back on their word and wrecking the Senate.
“Either way, it is exactly the kind of recklessness that has this unified Democratic government’s public approval in total free-fall.
“Even now, while the Democratic Leader complains that he’s short on time, he continues to waste time with partisan stunts that are dead on arrival.
“He has scheduled yet another vote this afternoon which he knows will fail. The majority has known for three months that show votes like this would go nowhere.
“This year, Democrats requested and won new powers to repeatedly reuse the reconciliation process.
“In the last few days, Democrats in both the House and Senate have publicly admitted their party could handle the debt limit that way.
“Our colleagues have plenty of time to get it done before the earliest projected deadline. There would be potential for time agreements to wrap it up well before any danger.
“But the Democratic leaders haven’t wanted solutions.
“They’ve wanted to turn their failure into everybody else’s crisis. Playing risky games with our economy. Using manufactured drama to bully their own members. Indulging petty politics instead of governing.
“Their entire failed approach to governing in a nutshell. On full display for the country to see.”
Mitch McConnell
debt ceiling
Democrat budget
$3.5 trillion budget resolution
federal deficit
National debt
Chuck Schumer
Nancy Pelosi
Joe Biden agenda
budget reconciliation
Kevin McCarthy