Nearly all Senate Republicans are pledging to oppose extending the federal debt ceiling as Democrats race to enact a $3.5 trillion party line spending package.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and a deficit hawk, secured the support, including himself, of 46 of the chamber’s 50 Republicans for the pledge, according to a letter being circulated throughout the Senate.
In the letter, Mr. Johnson argues that since Democrats are moving to approve the $3.5 trillion package alone, they should also be responsible for the spending implications.
“They have total control of the government and the unilateral ability to raise the debt limit,” Mr. Johnson wrote. “Doing so would not require a single Republican vote, and would appropriately require each and every Democrat to take responsibility for their out-of-control spending.”
The four Republican holdouts are Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Richard Shelby of Alabama.
The debt ceiling is a federally imposed limit on the amount of money the federal government can borrow to pay for its expenditures, like Social Security and employee salaries. A two-year suspension of the debt limit, agreed to under former President Trump, expired at the end of July.
Democrats initially contemplated including a provision raising the debt ceiling in their $3.5 trillion party-line package.
Dubbed as “human infrastructure,” the legislation contains a slew of liberal priorities, including new climate-change regulations and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Because those provisions are unlikely to garner GOP support, Democrats plan to pass it along party lines via budget reconciliation.
The process allows spending measures to avoid the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold and pass with a simple majority of 51 votes.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, however, balked at the last minute, choosing instead to leave the matter out of the reconciliation package.
Instead, Democrats will attempt to pass a debt ceiling increase through regular Senate procedure, meaning that it will require at least 10 GOP votes to overcome a likely filibuster.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, has ruled out GOP votes for such a purpose.
“Democrats keep boasting about how wild and revolutionary their partisan vision is,” said Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican. “So our friends across the aisle should not expect traditional bipartisan borrowing to finance their nontraditional reckless taxing and spending spree.”
Mr. McConnell is one of the 46 Republicans to sign on to Mr. Johnson’s letter. If all the signatories remain solid, Democrats will have to rethink their strategy.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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