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Biden calls out GOP on debt ceiling: “Hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful”


President Joe Biden addressed the debt ceiling Monday, two weeks ahead of an important deadline to either raise or not. The video above shows clips from President Biden’s address.

That deadline is Oct. 18. Last week, the Treasury Department said that is the date the department “will likely exhaust its extraordinary measures”, leaving it “with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly”.

Biden went after Republicans for not supporting raising the debt ceiling. “Not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they’re threatening to use the power, their power, to prevent us from doing our job, saving the economy from a catastrophic event,” Biden said. “I think, quite frankly, it’s hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful.”

A bill to raise the debt ceiling passed in the House last month. Senate Republican hesitancy has been lead by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He wrote a letter to Biden regarding the debt ceiling Monday.

In the letter, McConnell referred to the budget reconciliation process Democrats used to avoid a filibuster on Biden’s larger economic plan: “Bipartisanship is not a light switch that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer may flip on to borrow money and flip off to spend it,” McConnell said in the letter. “Republicans’ position is simple. We have no lists of demands. For two and a half months, we have simply warned that since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well.”

The future of the debt ceiling, as well as the Biden economic agenda, remained in limbo Monday. Biden’s larger $3.5 trillion spending bill is being chiseled back to around $2 trillion, while final approval of the Senate-passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill is on hold.

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Joe Biden, U.S. President: “Good morning. It will come as no surprise to you, I’d like to talk about what we need today to raise the debt limit, and why the Republicans in Congress, what they’re doing today is so reckless and dangerous in my view. Raising the debt limit comes down to paying what we already owe, what has already been acquired, not anything new. It starts with the simple truth, the United States is a nation that pays its bills and always has. From its inception, we have never defaulted.”

“So let me be really clear, this is really important to know. Raising the debt limit is about paying off our old debts. It has nothing to do with any new spending being considered. It has nothing to do with my plan for infrastructure or Building Back Better, zero zero. Both of which I might add, are paid for. So if we’re going to make good on what’s already been approved by previous congresses and previous presidents and parties, we have to pay for it.”

“The reason we have to raise the debt limit is in part because of the reckless tax and spending policies under the previous Trump administration. In four years, they incurred nearly $8 trillion dollars. In four years, $8 trillion dollars in additional debt in bills we have to now pay off. That’s more than a quarter of the entire debt incurred now outstanding after more than 200 years. And Republicans in Congress raised the debt three times when Donald Trump was president, and each time with Democrat support. But now they won’t raise it, even though they’re responsible for more than eight trillion dollars in bills incurred in four years under the previous administration. That’s what we’d be paying off. They won’t raise it, even though defaulting on the debt would lead to a self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff.”

“Not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they’re threatening to use the power, their power, to prevent us from doing our job, saving the economy from a catastrophic event. I think, quite frankly, it’s hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful. Their obstruction and irresponsibility knows absolutely no bounds, excuse me, especially as we’re clawing our way out of this pandemic. Democrats will meet our responsibility and obligation to this country. We’re not expecting Republicans to do their part, they made it clear from the beginning. We tried asking, to no avail. We’re just asking them not to use procedural tricks to block us from doing the job that they won’t do. A meteor is headed to crash into our economy. Democrats are willing to do all the work stopping it. Republicans just have to let us do our job, just get out of the way. If you don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don’t destroy it.”

“Republicans say they will not do their part to avoid this needless calamity, so be it. But they need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy. It’s one thing to pay our debts already acquired. It’s another to require a supermajority to pay the debts already acquired. It’s not right. Let the Democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling this week without obstruction or further delays.”