Senate Voting On US Debt Ceiling

The Senate is now voting on final passage of a bill to raise the US debt limit by $2.5 trillion, which will extend the limit into 2023.

The vote is taking place after a one-time, fast-track process was put in place to allow Democrats to act alone to increase the debt ceiling without votes from Republicans. Consequently, this only requires a simple majority to pass. After Senate vote is done, the measure will next have to go to the House.

Congress has been struggling with how to address the debt ceiling for over the past few months. In October, lawmakers passed a short-term debt limit extension into December after Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to avert economic disaster following weeks of partisan deadlock over the issue.

The extension passed after Republicans first argued that Democrats should act alone to address the debt limit through a process known as budget reconciliation. Democrats rejected that idea, arguing that the issue is a shared bipartisan responsibility and that the process would be too lengthy and unwieldy, making the risk of miscalculation too high.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned President Biden in October in a letter that Democrats should not expect Republicans to help again.

Democrats, however, held firm and continued to resist pressure from Republicans to pursue dealing with the debt limit through the time-consuming reconciliation process in the weeks that followed.

Earlier last week, McConnell rejected the idea that by brokering a new deal to stave off default with Democrats he has reversed his earlier position of saying that Republicans would not help Democrats deal with the issue.

“The red line is intact. The red line is that you have a simple majority, party-line vote on the debt ceiling. That’s exactly where we will end up,” he said last Tuesday.

“I think this is in the best interest of the country by avoiding default. I think it is also in the best interest of Republicans,” McConnell said. “I believe we’ve reached here a solution to the debt ceiling issue that’s consistent with Republican views of raising the debt ceiling for this amount at this particular time and allows the Democrats to proudly own it, which they are happy to do.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the debt limit could be reached on December 15 — otherwise the US would suffer financial catastrophe and endure its first-ever default.

The legislative aerobics to avoid a default underscore how Republicans in particular are eager to avoid both an economic disaster and the backlash for casting a politically toxic vote of raising the borrowing limit.