WASHINGTON (Fwrd Axis) — President Joe Biden on Monday ripped into Republicans for refusing efforts to raise the debt ceiling with the nation facing a two-week deadline from being unable to pay its debts.
Speaking from the White House, Biden blamed Republicans for not joining Democrats in raising the debt limit to pay for past debts. Congressional Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts by Democrats and refused to give any votes to raise the debt limit.
“Not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, but they’re threatening to use 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,” Biden said.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned lawmakers the nation will not be able to pay its bills for the first time in history if Congress refuses to increase the country’s borrowing limit by October 18. Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, argue the Democrats should raise the debt ceiling on their own by using reconciliation, which would not require any votes from Republicans.
In his remarks on Monday, Biden blasted the efforts by the Republicans.
“We’re not expecting Republicans to do their part,” Biden said. “They made that clear from the beginning. We tried asking, to no avail. We’re just asking them to not 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 in stopping it,” he added. “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, just get out of the way so you don’t destroy it.”
The President called out the Republican party for their stance, saying more than $8 trillion of the U.S. debt was incurred during the Trump administration. He added his policies such as the American Rescue Plan along with his proposed $1.2 bipartisan infrastructure and the Build Back Better Act are not the reasons for the country being in debt.
“Raising the debt limit is about paying off our old debts,” Biden said. “There’s 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.”
“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 for four years,” he added.
In a letter to Biden on Monday, McConnell asked the President to pressure Democrats into using the reconciliation process. Following his remarks, Biden took questions from the press and said he read the letter and plans to talk to the Minority Leader about it.
“I plan on talking to Mitch about it,” he said. “I hope we can have some intelligent and honest conversation about what he’s proposing.”
