sent a letter<\/a> to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying the Treasury was taking extraordinary measures to buy Congress more time to pass a bill raising the debt ceiling, mostly through suspending some payments to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThe period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and recipients of the U.S. government months into the future,\u201d Yellen wrote. \u201cI respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congress is not in session this week. Most House and Senate members have returned to their districts and are holding events, meeting with constituents or touting some of the projects they recently secured in a $1.7 trillion spending bill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But the prospect of a deal is already proving difficult. McCarthy, working with a narrow Republican majority in the House that has already flexed its muscles by only electing him speaker after he made several concessions to an ultraconservative wing of the party. He has told reporters he wants to see changes in how the government spends its money. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But the Biden administration has repeatedly said it will not negotiate over raising the ceiling, potentially creating a situation similar to 2011, when the country\u2019s credit rating was downgraded for the first time amid an impasse over whether to raise the debt ceiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been very clear on this,\u201d said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary. \u201cThis should not be political brinkmanship. We should be dealing with the debt ceiling without conditions. It is important, we\u2019re not going to work our way around this, we\u2019re not going to negotiate on this. This is the basic duty of Congress, is to deal with this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize new spending, it just allows the Treasury to borrow money to pay for existing expenses. House members from Kansas and Missouri are already falling into party lines over how to handle their looming deadline on when to act.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat who was in Congress when the country\u2019s credit rating was downgraded, pointed out that Republicans helped raise the debt ceiling several times under former President Donald Trump and criticized their support for changes to the tax code in 2017 that added to the federal deficit.<\/p>\n
He said lawmakers who were willing to allow the country to default on its debt were interested in \u201cdiminishing the influence\u201d of the United States.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir statements about fiscal responsibility ring hollow to the American people because they have proven time and time again that they don\u2019t give a single thought to our national debt until they can use it as a political tool to hurt a Democratic president,\u201d Cleaver said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rep. Ron Estes, however, pinned the blame for spending on Democrats, even though the debt increased by more than $7 trillion during Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time for Congress to address the out-of-control spending and stop mortgaging our children and grandchildren\u2019s futures to borrow more from foreign nations like China,\u201d Estes said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Others are walking a finer line. Both Reps. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, and Ann Wagner, R-Missouri, said they don\u2019t want the country to default on its debt but that they wanted to see Congress address its spending. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wagner called on the administration to negotiate with Republicans to cut spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States will never default on its debt, but runaway deficit spending must be brought under control,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cCongress and the Administration should work in a bipartisan fashion to confront the challenges facing our nation today, including the debt and deficit, how best to secure our borders and confront enemies abroad, and ways to protect the individual rights of all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Davids, meanwhile, said Republicans should not threaten to let the country default on its debt.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAny serious lawmaker should not rule out negotiation on something as consequential as our government defaulting \u2014 but there is a difference between negotiating and threatening,\u201d Davids said. \u201cI agree that we need to bring down our debt and I\u2019m willing to work with both parties to do that, but not if it means taking our economy, our national security, and the programs our seniors rely on to the brink of destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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