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| Greg Nash/Pool via Reuters |
46 Republican senators have pledged to abstain from voting to raise the debt ceiling in order to shift the onus to congressional Democrats to pay for their next massive expenditure and prevent the U.S. government from defaulting on its obligations.
The GOP initiative, revealed by Republican Senator Ron Johnson during an interview with the Wall Street Journal, is an effort to hold the Democrats accountable for financing their recent sweeping spending sprees. The four Republicans who didn’t include their signatures were Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Richard Shelby, and John Kennedy. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s name is reportedly on the letter.
“They shouldn’t be expecting Republicans to raise the debt ceiling to accommodate their deficit spending,” Johnson told the Wall Street Journal.
Johnson spearheaded the petition and sent it around to his Republican colleagues once debate on the $3.5 trillion Democrat-backed budget framework commenced. That budget resolution, encompassing many Democratic legislative priorities such as climate change, health care, and education, is expected to pass the Senate without Republican support in the coming days. --->READ MORE HERE
Republicans are aiming to force Democrats to raise the debt ceiling on their own, without any GOP help, hoping that such a vote would solidify voter perceptions of Democrats as irresponsible spenders.
Senate Democrats released a fiscal year 2022 budget resolution on Monday that includes a framework for a $3.5 trillion spending package. By following the budget reconciliation process, Democrats have the ability to pass the spending measure without any GOP help, bypassing the filibuster.
Notably absent from the resolution, though, is a plan to suspend or raise the debt limit, which was already hit at the start of the month and must be raised sometime this fall. In other words, Democrats are not aiming to raise the debt ceiling on their own and instead are planning to count on Republican votes.
But Republicans are now hoping to force Democratic leadership's hand into raising the debt ceiling through reconciliation because they believe raising the debt limit after such heavy spending is politically unpopular and don't want to be associated with it at all. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called on the GOP to hold its ground and not raise the ceiling through regular order. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Brace For "Nasty" Debt Ceiling Fight As GOP Goes Full "Scorched Earth Mode" On Democrats
Four Senate Republican holdouts don’t join pledge to oppose hiking the federal debt ceiling
McConnell warns Dems not to expect GOP support on raising debt limit for ‘socialist shopping list’
Biden confident Congress will raise the debt ceiling
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