Democrats seek to raise the ceiling on public debt; the republicans want to stop them

Democrats do not have enough votes to approve the budget ceiling, they must seek agreements, since they require, at least, 10 Republicans to make this possible

Photo: JEWEL SAMAD / AFP / Getty Images

The disputes between Democrats and Republicans in Congress are growing deeper, in especially in relation to economic issues . On the one hand, the pro-government benches want the president’s agenda to go as planned in the White House, on the other, opponents seek to derail their proposals by not agreeing with them.

For months there has been a strong battle for the approval of the Infrastructure Plan, which collapsed almost two weeks ago. Given the failure of the bipartisan negotiations, the Democrats have decided to raise the issue with the instruments that the law allows them, such as the budget reconciliation, which allows them to give the green light to the plan without Republican votes .

This issue has left enormous differences and has limited the channels of dialogue between those involved, so the next legislative clash they will have will be when in a few weeks the issue of the approval or denial of raising the ceiling of the country’s public debt. This represents a major challenge for President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress .

Based on current law, during the Trump administration Congress agreed to allow the government to acquire debt until 31 of July this year. At that time, the Treasury Department can take what is known as extraordinary measures to keep the government solvent.

To raise the debt, the Senate plays a fundamental role, But the roof of it is subject to bipartisan bargaining, which means that the Democrats will need the support of the Republican Party. For this type of issue the ruling party will not be able to approve it by itself appealing to its majority or using mechanisms such as budget reconciliation.

Negotiation It can become extremely complicated, since Republicans do not agree with the economic measures that the Biden administration has chosen, since they consider that its measures may collapse the US economy due to the fact that many of its public policies spend large amounts of money. public budget.

For a debt increase to be approved, the parliamentary group of Democrats necessarily require a minimum of 10 Republican votes for make this possible. According to The Hill, Republican Senator John Thune said that he sees “unlikely” that Republicans will support raising the debt ceiling.

Despite the fact that Negotiating channels have been closed after Democrats eventually shut out Republicans from the approval of the Infrastructure Plan where the American Families Plan and the American Jobs Plan are located, negotiators have time to look for the Feedback Required .

Although it has not been publicly announced, the Democrats could stop the approval of the Infrastructure Plan in order to reach an agreement with the Republicans to fix a ceiling of debt agreed in exchange for the dialogues for the infrastructure to be resumed. Despite the fact that the clock runs out on the calendar of legislative sessions there is still time to reach an agreement .

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