As U.S. hits debt limit, KS, MO Republicans say deal with Biden hinges on spending cuts

As the U.S. government hit its debt limit Thursday, Republicans from Kansas and Missouri indicated they were willing to risk the country’s first default on its debt in order to secure spending cuts from the Biden administration, in what is shaping to be a protracted battle over raising the country’s debt limit.

Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said spending cuts were essential for any deal with the White House on the debt ceiling.

“American families don’t have the luxury of unlimited borrowing but their elected officials in Congress continue to raise the debt ceiling without cutting out of control spending or reforming our broken budgeting process,” Marshall said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Rep. Jason Smith, the newly christened chairman of the powerful, tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, pointed a finger at President Joe Biden while urging him to negotiate spending cuts or risk default.

“Instead of attacking his political opponents, President Biden should be spending this time working with House Republicans to address the debt ceiling in a way that imposes some fiscal sanity,” said Smith, a Republican who represents southeastern Missouri. “Otherwise, the President is simply scheduling America’s next debt crisis.”

Smith has pledged to use his chairmanship to push for policies that help the working class. But as Republicans have talked about spending cuts, some have pushed for changes to Social Security and Medicare, two popular programs that could become insolvent over the next 15 years.

The country’s debt was projected to exceed the $31.4 trillion limit set by Congress in 2021 on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter 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.

“The 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,” Yellen wrote. “I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

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.

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.

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’s credit rating was downgraded for the first time amid an impasse over whether to raise the debt ceiling.

“We have been very clear on this,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary. “This should not be political brinkmanship. We should be dealing with the debt ceiling without conditions. It is important, we’re not going to work our way around this, we’re not going to negotiate on this. This is the basic duty of Congress, is to deal with this issue.”

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.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat who was in Congress when the country’s 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.

He said lawmakers who were willing to allow the country to default on its debt were interested in “diminishing the influence” of the United States.

“Their statements about fiscal responsibility ring hollow to the American people because they have proven time and time again that they don’t give a single thought to our national debt until they can use it as a political tool to hurt a Democratic president,” Cleaver said.

Rep. Ron Estes, however, pinned the blame for spending on Democrats, even though the debt increased by more than $7 trillion during Trump’s presidency.

“It’s time for Congress to address the out-of-control spending and stop mortgaging our children and grandchildren’s futures to borrow more from foreign nations like China,” Estes said.

So did Rep. Mark Alford, a freshman Missouri Republican from Lake Winnebago, who pinned the blame for the debt on Biden.

“Congress must cut federal spending, not increase it by raising the debt ceiling,” Alford said. “It’s never too late to make these necessary spending cuts to keep this debt off the backs of our children and grandchildren.”

Others are walking a finer line. Both Reps. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, and Ann Wagner, R-Missouri, said they don’t want the country to default on its debt but that they wanted to see Congress address its spending.

Wagner called on the administration to negotiate with Republicans to cut spending.

“The United States will never default on its debt, but runaway deficit spending must be brought under control,” Wagner said. “Congress 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.”

Davids, meanwhile, said Republicans should not threaten to let the country default on its debt.

“Any serious lawmaker should not rule out negotiation on something as consequential as our government defaulting — but there is a difference between negotiating and threatening,” Davids said. “I agree that we need to bring down our debt and I’m 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.”