The GOP plans to use the debt ceiling as a political bludgeon, threatening either recession or Social Security cuts.
If Republicans take control of the House this fall, they plan on using debt limit talks — and the possibility of throwing the U.S. into default — if they don’t get their way on slashing government programs.
According to a new interview with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California), the party is planning on using must-pass debt ceiling legislation to force through the GOP’s agenda.
“You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt,” McCarthy said in an interview with Punchbowl News, ignoring the fact that economists view national debt obligations as often signaling the health of the economy. “We’re not just going to keep lifting your credit card limit, right,” he continued. “And we should seriously sit together and [figure out] where can we eliminate some waste? Where can we make the economy grow stronger?”
When McCarthy refers to eliminating so-called waste, it is likely that he is referring to, among other things, the GOP’s plans to cut Medicare and Social Security, two of the most popular and vital anti-poverty government programs in the U.S.
Republicans have been attacking the programs over the past months. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has threatened to put budgets up to congressional debate every year, which would almost definitely lead to cuts. Alarmingly, earlier this year, the Republican Study Committee, the largest Republican caucus in the House, put out a plan to raise the age at which people receive full benefits from both programs to 70, while implementing a rule that would raise the eligibility age over time.
The debt ceiling is an effective bludgeon for Republicans to use for this purpose. The debt ceiling accounts for government funding to provide promised payments for programs like Medicare and Social Security, as well as military salaries and other “existing legal obligations,” according to the Treasury Department.
Republicans had threatened to put the U.S. in default last September, after former President Donald Trump urged the party to do so. They appeared to be posing as deficit hawks — something they only do when a Democrat is in charge — while Democrats were debating the Build Back Better Act.
If they pull a similar move in 2023, it could be similar to 2011, when the GOP manufactured a debt ceiling crisis that ultimately “led directly to the worst recovery following a recession since World War II,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
If the debt ceiling isn’t raised by fall of 2023, when the government is slated to run out of funding, the U.S. could find itself in a situation similar to last year, when it was at risk of defaulting on its loans. This could have triggered a global recession and would have disastrous short- and long-term consequences for the U.S., as the creditworthiness of the country would be ruined.
In other words, Republicans appear to be willing to hold the U.S. and global economy on the brink of disaster in order to force Democrats to capitulate to their demands.
This way, too, Republicans can blame whatever economic fallout will come with either a default, government shutdown or cuts to Medicare and Social Security on Democrats. By pursuing these cuts during a Democratic presidency, they can point fingers at President Joe Biden if they are pushed through — potentially providing the GOP with a weapon come the 2024 election.
Republicans are laying out other plans for if they take the House, which polls say they are likely to do. GOP members of the House Education and Labor Committee have made a list of prominent labor officials like Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo as well as Biden’s pro-worker task force to target with hearings and attacks if they take control of the House.
Sen. Schumer: “Donald Trump has put his head in the sand. He is responsible for the safety of the American people and he has hurt that safety dramatically. And our Republican Senate friends are so afraid of Donald Trump that they don’t budge.”
U.S. Capitol police officers were honored Tuesday during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony.
The mother of a fallen Capitol police officer refused to shake the hands of two Republican lawmakers during Tuesday's Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the officers who defended the U.S Capitol during the January 6 riot.
Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Brian Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol police officer who died of a stroke following the riot, wouldn't accept a handshake offered by Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Kevin McCarthy.
Last year, Sicknick urged Congress to approve a commission to investigate the riot, asking them to visit her son's grave before making their final decision. Sicknick criticized certain Republicans' actions after several lawmakers expressed opposition to the committee, including McConnell.
In the video from Tuesday's awards, Sicknick is seen shaking hands with Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and receiving a kiss on the cheek from him before bypassing McConnell and McCarthy, who were both holding plaques.
When CBS News reporter Ellis Kim asked McCarthy about Sicknick "potentially snubbing him," he referred to the plaque.
Later, Sicknick told Kim she did, in fact, snub the two representatives.
"Because they're two-faced...they have no problem getting on a plane, going down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss (Trump's) ring after they did this. That's how I feel," Sicknick said.
Sicknick previously criticized former President Donald Trump for not stopping the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Later, she also placed blame on those repeating Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, such as Kari Lake, an Arizona Republican who recently lost a bid for governor.
Sicknick appeared in an ad for the Republican Accountability Project PAC in November, in which she said that "my son died because of people like Kari Lake."
A medical examiner ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes but said "all that transpired played a role in his condition", according to CBS News.
Following the Capitol riot, McCarthy visited Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. McConnell, a former Trump supporter, is no longer on the best terms with the former president and is often subject to Trump's criticism. He hasn't announced yet if he will back Trump's 2024 presidential bid.
In the video, Sicknick is not the only person refusing to shake hands with the Republican lawmakers. Other representatives of those receiving the awards also bypassed McConnell and McCarthy.
The video of the interaction was posted late Tuesday morning and has nearly 300,000 views.
Five people, including Brian Sicknick, died during the riot or afterward as a result of their injuries. Four other Capitol police officers died by apparent suicide after the attack.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest award from the United States Congress. It expresses the Congress's national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or an institution.
“I’m sure you’ll celebrate by kicking a dog or punching a baby...or whatever terrible people do for fun!!!!!” Stewart tweeted
Republicans are retaliating against a newly-revived Democratic plan to curb climate change by blocking a bill they previously supported that would provide healthcare to veteran victims of burn pits and Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used during the Vietnam War.
This shocking development, which has sparked the ire of progressives and Democrats, spans back to last week when Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. torpedoed a Democratic-led bill – dubbed "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" – that would pour billions into clean energy initiatives aimed at curtailing climate change. Instead, Manchin at the time said he wanted a slimmed-down version of the measure geared more toward lowering the cost of healthcare. "I would not put my staff through this – I would not put myself through this – if I wasn't sincere about trying to find a pathway forward to do something that's good for our country," the centrist Democrat said last week.
But on Thursday, Manchin completely reversed course, striking a reconciliation deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that includes $369 billion in climate and clean energy provisions. The unexpected about-face has shocked Democrats and environmental justice advocates alike and could amount to the biggest climate change legislation the nation has ever seen.
Still, climate advocates have argued that the measure is largely inadequate in addressing the full scope of global warming.
"The few details released this evening suggest this deal will prop up fossil fuels and promote the various false climate solutions beloved by industry," Food & Water Action Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement. "More subsidies for dirty hydrogen, carbon capture, and nuclear energy are not climate action, they are the opposite."
John Noël, Senior Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace USA, echoed that the measure "fails to address the out-of-control fossil fuel industry causing the climate crisis."
"Millions of people die every year as a result of fossil fuel air pollution, and we cannot afford any fossil fuel expansion if we're going to avoid a climate catastrophe," Noël said. "Marketing a 40% reduction in emissions over 8 years while increasing fossil fuel leasing and a handshake deal to streamline permitting for fossil fuel infrastructure does not add up."
Shortly after Manchin's reversal, Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman reported that Republicans will now whip against a formerly bipartisan bill, dubbed the "CHIPS Act," meant to boost U.S. manufacturing. This is in addition to the GOP's newfound opposition to making servicemembers who contracted dozens of medical conditions overseas eligible for healthcare subsidized by Veterans Affairs. Supporters of the measure have argued that the bill is long overdue, as Roll Call reported.
On Thursday, Republicans officially delayed the veterans' bill with a filibuster, arguing that would allow for profligate fiscal spending that contravenes predetermined budget caps. The GOP's sudden opposition to the law comes after the party widely backed a nearly identical bill that contained a subtle tax provision.
"It's about Congress hiding behind an important veterans care bill a massive unrelated spending binge," said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn.
After the vote, liberals and veterans' advocates immediately condemned congressional Republicans for playing politics at the expense of veterans.
"Congratulations @SenToomey You successfully used the Byzantine Senate rules to keep sick veterans suffering!!!! Kudos!" tweeted comedian Jon Stewart. "I'm sure you'll celebrate by kicking a dog or punching a baby…or whatever terrible people do for fun!!!!!"
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., likewise called the GOP's move "an eleventh-hour act of cowardice."
"Republicans chose today to rob generations of toxic-exposed veterans across this country of the health care and benefits they've earned and so desperately need," he tweeted. "Make no mistake—the American people are sick and tired of these games."
A staggering 25 GOP senators who voted to pass the bill last month suddenly changed their minds and voted no on Wednesday
Republican Senators have been accused of “sentencing veterans to death” after they blocked the passage of a landmark bill that would finally give US service members sick and dying from toxic exposure to burn pits access to the healthcare that they need.
Democratic lawmakers, veterans and advocates including TV host Jon Stewart spoke out in a highly emotional press conference on Thursday morning as the bill that had been expected to become law by the end of the week was suddenly derailed by the Republican party.
“This is total bullshit,” shouted Senator Kristen Gillibrand. “They have just sentenced veterans to death.”
On Wednesday, the SFC Heath Robinson Honoring our PACT Act collapsed in the US Senate when dozens of Republicans who previously backed the bill unexpectedly changed their minds and decided to vote against it.
The bill received just 55 of the needed 60 votes to pass a cloture motion on Wednesday, as just eight Republicans voted to move it forward. A staggering 25 of those who voted against it had voted to pass the same bill just one month earlier.
Back on 16 June, the Senate had overwhelmingly voted to pass the bill, with Senators voting 84 to 14 in favour of expanding healthcare access to thousands of veterans who had served the US overseas.
But now, with the Senate scheduled to go on a month-long recess on 5 August, thousands of veterans in desperate need of healthcare and disability benefits have now been left high and dry for even longer.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told The Independent on Capitol Hill on Thursday that he is “going to give our Republican friends another opportunity to vote on this Monday night."
Much of the blame for sabotaging the bill’s passage was levelled at Senator Pat Toomey who – ahead of the vote – spoke out against the bill and said that he wanted to add an amendment on provisional spending.
Speaking at Thursday’s press conference, Rosie Torres – cofounder of BurnPits360 and the wife of veteran Le Roy Torres, who has a rare terminal condition caused by burn pits – told the senator that more veterans will die because of him.
“Senator Toomey, how many veterans are going to die because of you?” she asked. “Please explain to us: what is an acceptable amount of deaths?”
Ms. Torres branded the Republican Senators who switched their votes “25 villains” as she said the veteran community “demands answers, we deserve justice."
Mr. Stewart, who has been lobbying the government to pass the bill, slammed the “abject cruelty” of the GOP lawmakers who had voted no and warned them that delaying passing the PACT Act is costing lives. He hit out at the Senators who plan to go on recess next week when the veterans who are sick and dying don’t have time to wait.
“They’re not on Senate time. They’re on human time. They’re on cancer time,” he said. “Don’t you have families? Don’t you have people who are deciding how to live their last moments?” he asked the lawmakers.
Mr. Stewart singled out Senators Toomey, Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell as he pointed out the hypocrisy of the lawmakers who claim they support veterans but voted against the PACT Act.
He read out one particular tweet posted by Mr. Scott on Wednesday where the Florida Republican showcased photos of him giving out care packages to service men and women – the very same day he voted against the bill.
“I was honored to join @the_uso today and make care packages for our brave military members in gratitude of their sacrifice and service to our nation,” read the tweet.
Mr. Stewart mocked the tweet saying “There’s a beautiful picture."
"Did you get the package? I think it has some M&Ms in it and some cookies,” he mocked.
He also impersonated Mr. McConnell’s voice as he revealed that one month earlier he had told veterans “we’ll get it done."
“Mitch McConnell yesterday flipped,” he said, referring to the Senator’s sudden decision to then vote no to the bill.
Mr. Toomey, meanwhile, “won’t sit down” with the veterans he is impacting while he claims that he has the backing of several veterans groups.
“Pat Toomey claims that he has veteran groups behind him,” he said.
“I call bullshit – these are the veteran groups,” he said gesturing around at the multiple veterans and representative from veterans groups who had gathered at the press conference to condemn the bill’s stalling.
“They’re all here. They don’t stand behind you in fact you won’t let them stand in front of you,” he said, branding Mr. Toomey a “fucking coward."
The TV host said that – after he has spent more than a decade lobbying the US government first for 9/11 responders and then for veterans – he is “used to the hypocrisy” and “lies."
“The Senate is where accountability goes to die. They’re never losing their jobs. They’re never losing their healthcare.”
He added: “This is an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country and to the founders and to all that they confess to hold dear. If this is America first then this is America fucked!”
When asked for his reaction to Mr. Stewart’s comments, Mr. Toomey replied: “That’s not worth responding to.” His office directed The Independent to his tweet on Wednesday where he said he was trying to solve a “budget gimmick."
“Tonight, the Senate voted to give us the chance to fix a completely unnecessary budget gimmick in the underlying text of the PACT Act. This gimmick allows $400B in spending completely unrelated to veterans care,” he said.
“We can easily fix this tonight, and there is no reason we cannot do so NOW. This simple fix would not reduce spending on veterans in the underlying bill by a single penny. It’s wrong to use a veterans bill to hide an unrelated slush fund.”
When asked for comment, Mr. McConnell’s office referred The Independent to his comments on the Senate floor where he said that he supports the “substance of the bill” but that lawmakers first need to “fix the underlying accounting issue."
In March, the bill was renamed after the late Sgt. Heath Robinson who died in May 2020 from a rare cancer caused by breathing in toxic fumes from burn pits while serving in Iraq in the Ohio National Guard. He was 39.
His mother-in-law Susan Zeier choked back tears on Thursday as she branded the Senators voting against it “reprehensible” while dresssed in her late son-in-law’s army jacket. Just one month earlier she had symbolically taken off the jacket saying that she no longer needed to “carry” Heath “on her shoulders” after the Senate passed the bill.
The 16 June vote had been celebrated by veterans, their families and advocates who have spent years battling for the US government to take the issue of burn pits seriously – as the passage meant it seemed certain that the bill was weeks away from becoming law.
The bill was sent back to the House for a final vote where it passed with a 342-88 vote on 14 July. Because of a minor technical fix the House made, the Senate was required to vote on it again before it could be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
But – between one month and the next – dozens of Republican Senators decided that they no longer supported expanding healthcare and disability access to US servicemembers and decided to change their vote.
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester slammed the move on the Senate floor on Wednesday night. “This eleventh-hour act of cowardice will actively harm this country’s veterans and their families,” he said.
“Republicans chose today to rob generations of toxic-exposed veterans across this country of the health care and benefits they so desperately need. And make no mistake, more veterans will suffer and die as a result.”
Under the legislation, 23 cancers, respiratory illnesses and other conditions will now be presumptively linked to a veterans’ exposure to burn pits while on deployment overseas. This means service men and women who have returned home from serving their country and developed one of these conditions will be given automatic access to healthcare and disability benefits.
It will also fund federal research on the impact of burn pits on the nation’s troops. An estimated 3.5 million servicemembers and veterans are estimated to have been exposed to burn pits and airborne toxins while serving the US overseas, according to the Veterans Affairs (VA).
During America’s post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, huge open-air pits were used to burn mountains of trash including food packaging, human waste and military equipment on US military bases. Thousands of US service members returned home from deployment and developed health conditions including rare cancers, lung conditions, respiratory illnesses and toxic brain injuries caused by breathing in the toxic fumes from the pits.
But, until now, the burden of proof has always been on veterans to prove their condition is directly caused by this toxic exposure. In September 2020, a senior VA official testified before Congress that almost 80% of disability claims mentioning burn pits were rejected between 2007 and 2020.
In the last six months, the President has made tackling the issue of burn pits a higher priority and repeatedly urged lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass legislation to support veterans. During his State of the Union address in March, said that he believes his son Beau Biden may have died as a result of toxic exposure to burn pits during his deployment to Iraq.
The Senate made history on Thursday when it confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, handing President Biden a significan
The Senate made history on Thursday when it confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, handing President Biden a significant win.
Jackson’s ascension to the country’s highest court breaks multiple barriers: She will be the court’s first Black female justice and its first former public defender.
Senators voted 53-47 on Jackson’s confirmation. GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) bucked their party and voted to confirm her.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) touted Jackson’s nomination as a “joyous, momentous, groundbreaking day.”
“In the 233-year history of the Supreme Court, never — never — has a Black woman held the title of ‘justice.’ Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first, and I believe the first of more to come,” Schumer said.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), one of three Black lawmakers in the Senate, acknowledged his own daughters in a speech shortly before Thursday’s vote, saying “the historic nature of [Jackon’s] appointment isn’t lost on me.”
“I know what it has taken for Judge Jackson to get to this moment, and nobody is going to steal my joy,” he said.
Underscoring the historic nature of the vote, Vice President Harris — who was the first female, first Black and first Asian American person to hold the No. 2 office — presided over the chamber’s confirmation of Jackson.
“I’m overjoyed, deeply moved. You know, there’s so much about what’s happening in the world now that is presenting some of the worst of … human behaviors and then we have a moment like this that I think reminds us that there is still so much yet to accomplish and that we can accomplish, including a day like today that is so historic and so important, for so many reasons,” Harris told reporters as she was leaving the Capitol.
“I do believe it is a very important statement about who we are as a nation, that we have just made a decision to put this extraordinary jurist on the highest court of our land. It’s a good statement about who we are,” Harris added.
More than a dozen Congressional Black Caucus members walked across the Capitol to the Senate chamber to watch the vote, before holding a celebratory press conference just off the Senate floor.
Senators also largely stood at their desk to vote, underscoring the significance of the vote, compared to a normally chatty Senate floor. But some Republicans, including Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), were spotted voting from a door at the back of the chamber because they were too casually dressed.
The vote was held open for several minutes as senators waited for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to show up to vote, with many Republicans leaving rather than wait for him. Once Harris closed the vote on Jackson’s nomination, Democratic senators as well as Murkowski and Romney stood to give a standing ovation.
Jackson needs to be sworn in before she’s officially a Justice on the Supreme Court. Justice Stephen Breyer, whom she is succeeding, has said he will step down over the summer, assuming his successor was in place.
But Thursday’s vote caps off a roughly 40-day sprint by the White House and Senate Democrats, who are eager to put their own stamp on the judiciary.
Jackson’s road to confirmation had a number of high-profile tense moments, including Republicans attacking her sentencing in certain child pornography cases, portraying her as soft on crime, questioning her work tied to the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and arguing that she would be a “judicial activist.”
“I see hallmarks of judicial activism in Judge Jackson’s record and will vote ‘no,’” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “We’re about to have a new Justice whose fan club has openly attacked the rule of law. So Judge Jackson will quickly face a fork in the road. One approach to her new job would delight the far left. A different approach would honor the separation of powers and the Constitution.”
Republicans held a final press conference shortly before the vote to make their case against Jackson.
“I believe she will prove to be the furthest left of any Justice to have ever served on the Supreme Court, based on her record,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Many of those attacks were led by GOP senators viewed as having White House ambitions, like Cruz, and drew pushback from Murkowski and Romney, two of the three Republicans who voted for Jackson.
“I think there was a level of personal attack that was unwarranted,” Murkowski said shortly after she announced that she would support Jackson’s nomination.
Despite the fireworks, Jackson’s confirmation was never seriously in doubt, as Democrats could confirm her without any GOP help if all 50 of their members remained united.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced on March 25 that he would back Jackson, putting her on a glide path. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) made her support official on Thursday shortly before the vote, though Jackson already had the votes to be confirmed.
But top Democrats and the White House were eager to pick up GOP support.
Though Supreme Court confirmations were once routine affairs, they’ve grown increasingly contentious in recent decades.
Republicans nixed the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees in 2017, following a move by Democrats to get rid of the same hurdle for lower-court nominees in 2013. Only three Democratic senators voted for Neil Gorsuch in 2017, who was nominated to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia after Republicans refused to give Merrick Garland, President Obama’s final nominee, a hearing or a vote in 2016.
Manchin was the only Democratic senator who voted to support Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 nomination after Kavanaugh faced sexual assault allegations, which he denied. No Democratic senator voted for Amy Coney Barrett, whose confirmation came days before the 2020 elections.
To try to win over Republicans, Biden reached out to some GOP senators directly, including Murkowski and Collins.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told The Hill that he had reached out to 10 Republican senators to try to win their support.
“I talked to 10 people and all of them were pleasant … and only one told me she was going to vote ‘yes,’ so I had my fingers crossed,” Durbin said.
Three GOP senators voted for Jackson last year for her appeals court seat: Collins, Murkowski and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). But Graham was widely viewed to be a “no” after he pushed hard for another nominee and used Jackson’s four-day hearing to vent Republican grievances over the treatment of past nominees, as well as to criticize Jackson’s sentencing and her work related to Guantánamo Bay detainees.
While Collins announced her decision last week, Romney and Murkowski announced their support just minutes before they cast an initial vote to advance Jackson’s nomination. Murkowski is the only one of the three that is up for reelection in 2022, where she faces a challenger backed by former President Trump.
Collins said that she had spoken with both Romney and Murkowski about Jackson’s nomination before they made an announcement.
“I obviously am delighted that they reached a very similar conclusion to mine in terms of the rationale and that the judge will be confirmed on a bipartisan vote,” Collins said. “I think that’s important. It used to be that that was very common when it came to a Supreme Court Justice.”
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer announced they would attach a debt-ceiling suspension to a government-funding bill, daring the GOP. McConnell
As the White House stressed the urgency of raising the debt ceiling to avoid a government default, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that the House would pass legislation to fund the government that includes a debt-limit suspension through the end of next year.
It was a dare to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would need to lend some Republican votes for it to pass the Senate. He was unfazed.
"Since Democrats decided to go it alone, they will not get Senate Republicans' help with raising the debt limit," McConnell said after Pelosi and Schumer's announcement. "I've explained this clearly and consistently for over two months. We do not have divided government. Democrats do not need our help."
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress earliebr this month that the government's money would likely run out in October because of financial uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement on Monday that the House would pass legislation before October to fund the government through the end of the year and tack on a debt-ceiling suspension through December "to once again meet our obligations and protect the full faith and credit of the United States."
"Addressing the debt limit is about meeting obligations the government has already made, like the bipartisan emergency COVID relief legislation from December as well as vital payments to Social Security recipients and our veterans," the lawmakers wrote. "Furthermore, as the Administration warned last week, a reckless Republican-forced default could plunge the country into a recession."
Republican lawmakers have said they won't get involved with raising the debt limit and want Democrats to go at it alone, citing their "irresponsible spending" on a $3.5 trillion social-spending bill. By tacking on the debt ceiling to the government-funding legislation, Pelosi and Schumer are daring the GOP to vote for a default.
"The American people expect our Republican colleagues to live up to their responsibilities and make good on the debts they proudly helped incur in the December 2020 '908' COVID package that helped American families and small businesses reeling from the COVID crisis," Pelosi and Schumer wrote, referring to the December stimulus package passed under President Donald Trump.
On Sunday, Pelosi wrote in a letter that every time the debt limit has needed to be raised, "Congress has addressed it in a bipartisan basis." On the same day, Yellen urged Congress to come together to raise the limit, citing the "economic catastrophe" that could result with the failure to do so.
Biden's extension of the pause in student loan payments would mark the fifth time the government has continued the freeze, without wide forg
President Joe Biden plans to extend the moratorium on federal student loan payments through Aug. 31, the Associated Press reported, citing a federal official. For tens of millions of Americans, student debt limbo will continue another three months.
The move will mark the fifth extension since the pause took effect in March 2020. This time, inflation is climbing and gas prices are soaring in connection to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All the while, the nation’s $1.7 trillion student loan debt portfolio continues to grow, with no firm direction for the indebted.
The freeze saves 41 million borrowers about $5 billion a month, the Education Department has said previously.
Want Student Loan Forgiveness? Millions Of Jobs Qualify For Updated Program — And Yours Might Be One Of Them.
Though borrowers likely will appreciate the extra wiggle room, many have grown frustrated with the continued extensions without a plan for widespread forgiveness. Both conservative and liberal politicians are expected to pan the Biden administration’s actions.
Some Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have been pressing Biden to use his executive authority to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower. As recently as March 31, dozens of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the president urging him to extend the pause through year's end and "to provide meaningful student debt cancellation."
But Biden has said he believes such action must come from Congress. That’s likely an uphill battle with an evenly split Senate and Republicans broadly opposed to debt forgiveness. The president had campaigned on forgiving up to $10,000 in debt per borrower.
Pelosi Agrees With Biden: She Says President Doesn’t Hold Power To Cancel Student Loan Debt, Breaking With Top Dems
Conservative advocacy groups, led by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, say the moratorium has been overly generous to those with student loan debt at the expense of those without a higher education. They sent a letter March 8 to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging him to restart payments as a way to address the national deficit and combat inflation.
Meanwhile, borrowers are getting more insistent in their pleas for widespread loan forgiveness.
On Monday, borrowers from California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania traveled to Washington to press the president to cancel student loan debt. They assembled outside of the Education Department with signs that read, “Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay,” or “You are not a loan.” The Debt Collective, an advocacy group focused on debt cancellation, arranged the event.
Borrowers at the demonstration said the payment pause helped them, but they wanted long-term cancellation. They said the repeated extensions make it difficult for them to plan.
“The pause doesn’t change the fact that it’s still not affordable,” said Elisha DeJesus, 27, a Massachusetts therapist for children.
DeJesus has about $40,000 in student loan debt. She said it would be a struggle to restart payments given recent inflation. She's also paying for gas more frequently as she has returned to working in an office.
Life Without Loans: How The Payment Pause Changed People’s Lives
Regardless of when payments restart, the government is expected to face challenges in getting borrowers to resume their payments. A January report from the Government Accountability Office found nearly half of the 42.3 million borrowers covered by the freeze are at high risk for delinquency.
The at-risk group includes people who were delinquent on their loans before the pause, those who dropped out of college and graduates within the last three years who haven’t had to make any loan payments, thanks to the freeze.
Though it remains unclear if the president ultimately will erase student loan debt en masse, the Education Department has taken some steps to offer borrowers permanent relief. The agency is on track to cancel more than $17 billion owed by borrowers since Biden took office. That forgiveness has come through expansions of existing debt forgiveness programs, such as those for borrowers who have permanent disabilities or were defrauded by their schools.
For instance, the department announced recently it had identified about 100,000 borrowers who would benefit from changes it announced to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program in October. That would clear about $6.2 billion in debt for the affected borrowers. And the government sent another $415 million to 16,000 students defrauded by for-profit universities.
A College Closed, Upending One Veteran’s Life: Years Later, He’s Still Rebuilding.
