Democrats urging a change in filibuster rules said they hoped the nature of the debt limit fight, with widespread warnings of global economic calamity if the government defaults and Republicans’ refusal to negotiate, would persuade the two Democrats that it was time to put aside their misgivings and act.
“Republicans are making the case more powerfully than I could a million times on the floor,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a longtime filibuster foe. “What they are doing is obstruction and utterly exposes the filibuster. And it is not just inconvenience. It is desperately dangerous.”
Democrats could change the rules through a series of floor maneuvers with the votes of all 50 of their members and the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. They say any “carve out” for the debt limit would apply specifically to that legislation and not extend to other measures. But any move to alter the filibuster would intensify calls to weaken it for other Democratic priorities that Republicans are uniformly blocking, notably a voting rights measure that Democrats say is urgently needed to offset efforts by Republicans at the state level to impede voting by minorities and others.
Mr. McConnell has threatened to bring the Senate to a standstill if Democrats undermine the filibuster. He has said repeatedly that Democrats should instead employ the budget process known as reconciliation to raise the debt limit, which would allow them to take advantage of rules that shield certain fiscal legislation from a filibuster.
“There is already an existing carveout where Democrats can do it themselves — it’s called reconciliation,” Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said on Twitter.
Understand the U.S. Debt Ceiling
What is the debt limit? The debt limit is a cap on the total amount of money that the federal government is authorized to borrow via U.S. Treasury bills and savings bonds to fulfill its financial obligations. Because the U.S. runs budget deficits, it must borrow huge sums of money to pay its bills.
How much debt does the U.S. currently have? The national debt now stands at $28.43 trillion, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s live tracker. The borrowing cap is set at $28.4 trillion, leaving the government with negligible wiggle room.
Why does the U.S. limit its borrowing? According to the Constitution, Congress must authorize borrowing. The debt limit was instituted in the early 20th century so the Treasury did not need to ask for permission each time it needed to issue bonds to pay bills.
Do other countries do it this way? Denmark also has a debt limit, but it is set so high that raising it is generally not an issue. Most other countries do not. In Poland, public debt cannot exceed 60 percent of gross domestic product.
Why is raising the debt limit so difficult? For many years, raising the debt ceiling was routine. But as the political environment has become more polarized, Congress has been playing an increasingly dangerous political game over the debt ceiling.
Would it be a good idea to do away with the debt limit? It often seems that the risk of an accidental default outweighs any fiscal responsibility that the debt limit encourages. However, it would take an act of Congress to do away with the debt limit, and finding agreement there is never easy.
But Democrats say the reconciliation process would consume too much time and is not assured of succeeding when the threat of a default is looming and the nation’s credit could be downgraded at any time. They say that if Republicans do not want to vote to increase federal borrowing power, they should simply allow Democrats to do it on their own.
“Look, the best way to get this done is just for Republicans to get out of the way,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said Tuesday. “None of them have to vote for a debt ceiling; let the 50 Democrats do it.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/debt-ceiling-filibuster.html
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