Democrats are expressing concerns over concessions President Joe Biden may make to avoid a national default, including imposing work requirements for certain social benefit programs and dialing back green energy permitting reforms.
And some are openly advocating for the president to invoke the 14th Amendment or use other untested strategies to avoid negotiating a debt ceiling compromise with Republicans that would almost certainly set back a number of important Democratic priorities.
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It is “pretty clear” to Democratic strategist Jim Manley that some lawmakers, though it is unclear how many, are “nervous” about the direction of Biden’s debt ceiling negotiations with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
“I, for one, am not convinced that any of the workarounds being discussed are feasible and feel that the only way to deal with this is by legislating a compromise,” Manley told the Washington Examiner. “However, if the resulting product … [sticks] it to the poor with work requirements on social welfare programs, while Republicans rule out even closing tax loopholes, I, for one, am not going to support a deal.”
Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, disagreed to an extent, contending that “the push for the 14th Amendment is a response to Republicans taking our economy hostage.
“Republicans have shown that they’re willing to wreak economic catastrophe on working people,” she said. “Democrats can and should be pursuing every avenue to prevent that, including considering invoking the 14th Amendment.”
Democrats’ “Plan B,” which also includes House lawmakers circulating a discharge petition that would raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts, is additionally a “fail safe” necessitated by McCarthy’s “very fragile majority,” according to Democratic consultant Christopher Hahn.
“President Biden should use every tool at his disposal to do that, including the 14th Amendment, including minting a trillion dollar coin,” he said. “In the history of this country, 30% of all debt was committed during the Trump administration [and] the debt ceiling was raised three times [then] without any fanfare.”
Biden has been open about the possibility he would support work requirement reforms that he voted for in the past, including for temporary financial help for families in need, and potentially for food stamps, though he opposes impositions on Medicaid.
But Republicans, including McCarthy’s office and the Republican National Committee, have amplified an Axios/Ipsos poll that found 63% of the public supports food stamp and Medicaid work requirements, such as those for able-bodied Americans with no dependents.
“Democrats’ opposition to common sense work requirements for able-bodied adults on welfare is out of touch with the American people and simply allows for a perpetual cycle of poverty,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) told the Washington Examiner.
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), who chairs the House Ways and Means Work and Welfare Subcommittee, specifically referenced Biden’s 1996 vote for welfare reform when he was one of Delaware’s senators.
“I’m proud that we have a support system in place, but it should be a trampoline, not a generational poverty trap,” he said.
Republican work requirements are “reasonable and sensible” because they address welfare program loopholes that have been exploited, per one congressional Republican aide.
“For critics of closing work requirement loopholes, there’s an argument to be made that if we prevent abuses within the program, that will only bolster benefits for the families, disabled, and single mothers [who] need these services the most,” the source said. “When the programs are abused and stretched too thin, the most vulnerable get hurt the most.”
At the same time, Democrats, from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) to Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), have condemned Biden for even contemplating work requirement reforms, prompting five senators to write to the president about the 14th Amendment.
Both Biden and McCarthy have downplayed the prospect of the president utilizing the 14th Amendment, which would allow him to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally but would likely be legally challenged. McCarthy said Biden “didn’t bring that up” during their first White House meeting this month.
“Really think about this: if you’re the leader of the free world, if you’re the only president, and you’re going to go to a 14th Amendment to look at something like that, I would think you’re kind of a failure of working with people across the sides of the aisle or working with your own party to get something done,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The White House has sought to ease Democrats’ concerns that Biden will make too many concessions as some of them believe he did in 2011 when he was one of then-President Barack Obama‘s negotiators during the last debt ceiling standoff.
“This is a president that they could be reassured is fighting for clean energy, is fighting for manufacturing, is fighting for healthcare,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters en route to Japan. “That is something that I think progressives in Congress could take away with and understand the president is fighting for the American people, and you see that in the budget that he put forward.”
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Jean-Pierre earlier underscored Biden’s opposition to Medicaid work requirements but acknowledged his previous support for similar restrictions on needy family cash assistance.
“Their program already [has] work requirements and still have that because of the law today,” she said. “What we’re talking about is making sure that something that the president has been pretty consistent about for these past several months is continuing to fight for healthcare coverage.”
