Why is Biden refusing to negotiate on debt ceiling?

Joe Biden’s most important decision for this year has already been made. Biden and his top advisers indicated that they will reject demands from the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives to link increasing the debt ceiling with cutting federal spending. Instead, Biden is insisting that Congress pass a clean unconditioned debt-ceiling increase/

Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans now is rooted in the Obama administration’s experiences. Former President Obama did the same in 2011 despite Biden’s claims to the contrary. When House Republicans returned in 2013 with new demands for additional concessions in exchange for another increase in the debt ceiling, Obama refused to engage in negotiations with them; eventually, the Republicans lifted the debt ceiling without restrictions.

By raising the debt ceiling, Congress allows the Treasury to pay the obligations the United States has accrued as a result of prior fiscal policy decisions without authorizing any new spending. Failure to extend the debt ceiling would result in the United States experiencing its first-ever default, which would cause the stock market to crash, interest rates to soar, and payments to the millions of Americans who depend on federal checks to stop.

Biden’s unwavering unwillingness to attach budgetary negotiations to a debt-ceiling rise is somewhat strange to his sort of character as a politician. Even now, administration representatives are clear that Biden is not ruling out discussions about fiscal policy with House Republicans. What Biden is saying is that he won’t allow Republicans to link fiscal negotiations to the threat of not raising the debt ceiling.