U.S. President Joe Biden assailed opposition Republican lawmakers Monday for preventing Democrats from increasing the country's borrowing authority to avert a potentially catastrophic default on October 18, when the U.S. government expects to run out of cash to pay its bills.
Biden said he could not guarantee that the United States would not default for the first time, contending it is up to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to allow Senate Democrats on their own to increase the debt limit past its current $28.4 trillion level without the threat of a Republican filibuster to block quick action.
"Just get out of the way," Biden told Republicans at a White House news conference.
"If you don't want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don't destroy it," he said.
Biden said if the government defaults on its debts, Republicans will be responsible. Economists predict that a default could have dire consequences for U.S. stock indexes and the world economy and possibly force the government to delay pension payments to older Americans or make timely payments to government contractors.
"I can't believe (a default) will be the end result, because the consequences would be so dire. … But can I guarantee it? If I could, I would. But I can't," Biden said.
He said a default was akin to a "meteor headed to crash into our economy," warning of higher interest rates and declining stock valuations affecting the investments of millions of Americans.
McConnell not budging
McConnell sent a letter Monday to the White House reiterating that Republicans would not help Democrats resolve the debt ceiling impasse.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats, with 50 seats in the 100-member Senate and the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, are willing to lift the debt ceiling on their own without Republican support on a simple majority vote.
But McConnell has refused to yield the right of Republicans to filibuster the issue, which would force the Democrats to reach a 60-vote threshold with the support of at least 10 Republicans. He says Democrats should approve the debt ceiling increase through a legislative tactic called reconciliation, a procedure that cannot be filibustered and that Democrats say would be time-consuming and cumbersome.
"Since mid-July, Republicans have clearly stated that Democrats will need to raise the debt limit on their own," McConnell wrote in the letter. "We have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well."
"The majority needs to stop sleepwalking toward yet another preventable crisis. Democrats need to tackle the debt limit," McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday.
Biden urged McConnell to simply allow Democrats to vote on the debt ceiling increase by not filibustering it, an option that would not require any Republican votes but would allow Democrats to proceed without obstruction.
'Obstruction and irresponsibility'
"They need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy," Biden said.
"Not only are Republicans refusing to do their job. They're threatening to use the power, their power, to prevent us from doing our job: saving the economy from a catastrophic event. I think, quite frankly, it's hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful. Their obstruction and irresponsibility knows absolutely no bounds."
Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat, urged his party to not rule out using the process of budget reconciliation to raise the debt ceiling.
"We just can't let the debt ceiling lapse," he told CNN.
The country's long-term debt is tantamount to personal credit card debt for consumers, requiring payments for debts already incurred. But in the latest standoff, McConnell and some Republican lawmakers are contending that lifting the debt ceiling would allow congressional Democrats to greatly expand government spending for the biggest expansion of social safety net programs since the 1960s, a move Republicans uniformly oppose.
Virtually alone among world governments, the U.S. imposes a debt ceiling, which Congress has had to increase on numerous occasions in recent decades because the U.S. chronically spends more on government programs than it collects in revenue from corporations and individual taxpayers.
Sometimes, the debt ceiling has been increased to a specific amount. Other times, it has been suspended for a year or two.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that Congress should simply do away with the debt ceiling altogether. Such a move appears unlikely, however, because lawmakers in both U.S. political parties relish blaming the other party for what they perceive as excessive spending.
Schumer said in a letter to colleagues Monday that lawmakers must quickly increase the debt ceiling to avoid financial ramifications.
"Let me be clear about the task ahead of us: We must get a bill to the president's desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period," he wrote.
Schumer said the Senate would have to stay in session through the weekend and possibly postpone a planned recess next week if no progress has been made by then.
