Democrats Block McConnell Effort to Advance Debt Limit Solution

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following statement today on the Senate floor regarding the debt limit:

“Mr. President —

“My colleague wants to discuss precedents from more than a decade ago.

“But he and his colleagues have spent all year boasting that what Democrats are doing to the country and the economy is completely without precedent!

“There is nothing normal about Democrats using reconciliation multiple times to blow a $5.5 trillion hole in the deficit without a single vote from our side.

“Debt limit increases like the one we saw in 2006 were not precursors to a massive, blow-out reconciliation package that Republicans were just waiting to shove down Democrats’ throats.

“My colleague is trying hard to make this complicated. But it’s simple.

“Republicans have said for more than two months that we will not help this unified Democratic government raise the debt limit.

“Democrats will not get bipartisan help borrowing money so they can immediately blow historic sums on a partisan taxing and spending spree.

“The Democratic Leader knew this request would fail.

“There is no chance the Republican Conference will go out of our way to help Democrats conserve their time and energy so they can resume ramming through partisan socialism as fast as possible.

“This Democratic government has spent months boasting about the radical transformation they’re ramming through.

“They have no standing to ask 50 Republican Senators to make their process more convenient.

“When the Democratic Leader was recently in the minority, he made us file cloture on matters that weren’t one-tenth this controversial.

“We had to invoke cloture on nominees who went on to be confirmed with literally zero votes in opposition.

“But the Democratic Leader wants to skip that step on something this controversial? Of course that won’t happen.

“All year long, Democrats have wanted to control government spending on their own.

“They requested and won extra flexibility to re-do reconciliation.

“So if Democrats want to use fast-track, party-line processes to spend trillions of dollars and transform the country… they will have to use the same tool to raise the debt limit.

“Now, here’s what Republicans will do.

“For the sake of the full faith and credit of our nation, I’m about to propose a different consent. One that will allow Democrats to start the budget process they will need to use to raise the debt ceiling.

“Our Democratic colleagues will need to do this alone, but I’ll propose an agreement to ensure the process can begin as soon as Democrats accept this is the path they need to take.”