Both political parties in Washington D.C. are facing off as the deadline for approving a raise to the debt ceiling is approaching quickly. On September 30th, several government benefit programs could be limited if congress is unable to successfully raise the debt limit.
Democrats are struggling to get Republicans onboard to raise the debt limit because they have taken a partisan approach to pass their agenda through reconciliation and failing to listen to Republican demands in several pieces of legislation since Biden’s administration took office.
House Democrats successfully passed a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling, but it’s unlikely to pass in the Senate. Republicans seem unwilling to negotiate and want to present Democrats with a taste of their own actions after spending months on the sidelines on numerous pieces of partisan legislation.
The political move by Republicans will likely be used to shift blame to the Democrats for any lapse in funding or government shutdown that takes place. With the clock ticking and time running out before the deadline approaches on September 30th, many political observers are worried that political games could lead to the U.S. harming their own ‘credit rating’ if they default on their debt.
Democrats could be forced to scramble themselves out of this debt situation by acting on their own and passing a piece of legislation through reconciliation that would only need to get 50 votes in the Senate. The problem is that this would once again be a partisan piece of legislation and it would certainly not be a bipartisan pathway of getting to a resolution to the problem.
The political betting markets only give congress an 8% of raising the debt limit by October 1st, with one week remaining before the deadline finally arrives. This indicates that a showdown in Washington D.C. will likely carry into next week and potentially lead to some difficult decisions for the congressional leaders of the Democratic Party.
