- The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 6, 2021

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday sidestepped questions about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposal to end Congress’ stalemate over raising the debt limit.

The Kentucky Republican on Wednesday said he would support a measure to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling. The offer is contingent upon Democrats pushing through a long-term fix to the debt ceiling on their own at a later date.

Senate Democrats are mulling the proposals. Ms. Psaki declined to comment if President Biden would support the proposals but said they were “complicated.”

“There’s no formal offer,” Ms. Psaki said. “A press release is not a formal offer and even the scant details that have been reported present more complicated, more difficult options than the one that is quite obvious in the president’s view.”

Mr. Biden has pushed for Republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling and has balked at the idea of addressing it through reconciliation.  

Mr. McConnell, however, is pushing reconciliation to avoid having Republicans vote for a debt-ceiling increase, thus protecting vulnerable GOP lawmakers from primary challengers labeling them as careless spenders.

Mr. Biden this week said he would be willing to have a phone conversation with Mr. McConnell about the debt limit, but Ms. Psaki said that call hasn’t been held. 

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.

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