Senate Republicans threaten to filibuster ANY plan without cuts

As President Biden and Chairman Kevin McCarthy prepare to sit down and talk about the debt limit for the first time in more than three months on Tuesday, senators dug in with their support for the speaker’s position that Republicans will not lift the loan limit without cuts.

A group of 43 GOP senators, led by Senator Mike Lee of Utah, threatened last weekend to block a debt ceiling deal that was not tied to “substantial” spending cuts.

The group is large enough to filibuster a clean debt ceiling bill in the Senate — meaning such legislation would fail in both chambers of Congress.

President Biden has insisted that spending cuts not be tied to raising the country’s borrowing limit, while Speaker Kevin McCarthy has long insisted that the GOP-led House will not agree to lift the debt limit without curbing spending .

Biden will meet with the “Big Four” on Tuesday — McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — as the clock ticks to June 1, the date the Treasury Department said the US would run out of money to pay its bills.

Our economy is in free fall due to unsustainable fiscal policy. This trajectory must be addressed with fiscal reforms,” ​​the letter to Schumer said.

“As such, we will not vote in favor of cloture on a bill that raises the debt ceiling without substantial spending and budget reform.”

The only GOP senators not to sign the letter were: Susan Collins, Maine, Josh Hawley, Mo., John Kennedy, La., Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Rand Paul, Ky., and Mitt Romney, Utah.

Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a debt ceiling bill on April 24 that would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $4.5 trillion that Schumer insisted is “dead on arrival” in the Senate .

Last week, the White House floated the idea of ​​a short-term increase in spending before going back on it. Both Schumer and Jeffries have said they don’t want to “kick the can down the road” and pushed for a long-term clean raise.

The political deadlock has left markets concerned about the possibility of default, which could send the dollar into a downward spiral.

In 2011, the US was at a similar point, coming within 72 hours of defaulting on its debts. Then-Vice President Biden stepped in to negotiate with congressional Republicans on behalf of the Obama administration and crafted the Budget Control Act — which imposed $917 billion in spending cuts in exchange for an initial $900 billion increase in the spending limit.

According to reports, President Obama and Biden agreed never to negotiate the debt limit again after that.