Democrats hinted Thursday that they won’t be too eager to help the GOP raise the government’s debt ceiling later this year, adding another partisan problem to Republicans’ list of challenges.
President Trump early in the day accused Democrats of obstruction over the debt ceiling, spurring House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to fire back that it’s not up to Democrats but to the Republicans.
“With the White House, House and Senate under one party control, the American people expect and deserve a plan from Republicans to avert a catastrophic default and ensure the full faith and credit of the United States,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “With so much at risk for hard-working families, Republicans need to stop the chaos and sort themselves out in a hurry.”
Republicans insist they won’t allow the country to default on obligations when the government runs out of borrowing room, likely in October. But GOP leaders also aren’t sure how to get from here to there, given the insistence by some conservatives that the debt debate be used to extract more limits to runaway spending.
Mr. Trump, on Twitter, said he’d suggested attaching the debt increase to a recent veterans bill, but he said GOP leaders refused.
He said “now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval.”
“Could have been so easy — now a mess!” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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