Warren: Republicans threatening to ‘wreck’ economy in debt ceiling battle to protect wealthy

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday took a jab at Republicans in the ongoing debt ceiling fight, accusing the party of trying to “wreck the economy” to protect wealthy taxpayers.

“If this were really about the national debt, then there are plenty of places we could go to stitch up loopholes, like no more of these tax havens abroad, that we could get that under control but that is not where the Republicans want to go,” Warren said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday.

Warren particularly seized on former President Trump’s signature 2017 tax law as well as GOP attacks targeting funding for the IRS.

“If the Republicans had not pushed just two things, the Republican tax cuts that went mostly to those at the very top and the biggest corporations and hollowing out the IRS specifically so they could not hold wealthy tax chiefs accountable, wouldn’t be able to audit them,” Warren said.

“If those two things had not happened, then we wouldn’t even hit the debt ceiling at any time during the first Biden administration,” she said.

The Treasury Department began implementing so-called extraordinary measures last week to keep the government from defaulting on its debt.

Federal financial data showed the country’s debt, accrued under both Republican and Democratic administrations, reached more than $31.4 trillion, passing the limit set by Congress when it last raised the nation’s borrowing limit more than a year ago.

Republicans have pressed any action taken to address the debt ceiling, which caps how much outstanding national debt the government can hold to fulfill its financial duties, paired with significant fiscal reform and spending cuts that have prompted pushback from Democrats.

At the same, however, Republicans have also opposed Democratic-backed tax proposals to raise revenue, with House GOP leadership prioritizing legislation targeting funding for the IRS passed as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a key piece of President Biden’s legislative agenda.

Democrats passed the sweeping bill without GOP support last year. The measure, which the Biden administration says is aimed at partly bolstering IRS tax enforcement to go after wealthy tax cheats, is expected to put billions of dollars toward deficit reduction over the next decade.

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