Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer announced a continuing resolution that will suspend the debt ceiling through December 2022.
Democrats Won’t Allow McConnell To Sabotage The Country.
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Pelosi and Schumer said:
This week, the House of Representatives will pass legislation to fund the government through December of this year to avoid a needless government shutdown that would harm American families and our economic recovery before the September 30th deadline. Both Republicans and Democrats have priorities they want to see addressed in the regular order appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2022, and an extension of government funding through December will provide an appropriate amount of time for that bipartisan, bicameral process to come to completion. In addition to avoiding an unnecessary government shutdown, this must-pass legislation will include the Administration’s request to provide emergency funding to help those devastated by the recent natural disasters as well as to help resettle our Afghan evacuees.
The legislation to avoid a government shutdown will also include a suspension of the debt limit through December 2022 to once again meet our obligations and protect the full faith and credit of the United States.  We believe a suspension of the debt limit through December 2022 would provide an amount of time commensurate with the debt incurred as a result of passing last winter’s bipartisan $908 billion emergency COVID relief legislation, which was authored by Republican Senators Cassidy, Romney, Portman, Collins and others – and ultimately voted for by more than 40 Republicans – including Senator McConnell – and signed into law by the previous president.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
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.
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. Â Furthermore, as the Administration warned last week, a reckless Republican-forced default could plunge the country into a recession.
We look forward to passing this crucial legislation with bipartisan support through both chambers and sending to the president’s desk in the coming weeks.
Senate Democrats Are Putting The Pressure On McConnell And The Senate GOP.
Republicans never learn. They played this game of chicken during the Obama administration, and they lost every single time. They were blamed for the most recent government shutdown under Trump.
This trick never works.
McConnell will try to push the country toward default. He may even allow a default until the blowback gets too intense, and then Senate Republicans will do the right thing after they have been forced to pay a price.
Mitch McConnell is embarking on a textbook path to losing a midterm election, and Pelosi and Schumer are going to make the Senate Republicans who are following him pay.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
