White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called for the debt ceiling to be lifted in a “bipartisan way,” as the United States is set to hit its federal debt limit next week.
The federal debt is projected to reach the statutory limit next Thursday, and there could be a partisan showdown in Congress over the issue. Asked how high the Biden administration would like to see the ceiling raised, Jean-Pierre instead pleaded for cooperation.
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“I’m not going to get into the specifics of that,” she said. “What I can say is that we believe, when it comes to the debt limit, that it has been done in a bipartisan way over the years — decades. It should be done in a bipartisan way, and it should be done without conditions.”
The debt ceiling was raised three times under President Donald Trump, Jean-Pierre added, though it will be up to Congress to take action rather than the White House.
This time, machinations inside the Capitol may make things tricky.
In order to flip 20 GOP holdouts last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) agreed to a number of demands that weaken his power while increasing the influence of rank-and-file members. One ideological concession was an agreement to pair any debt ceiling increase to spending cuts.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the GOP’s rules will set the House “on a path toward division and default,” referring to the looming debt ceiling fight. Republicans in both the House and the Senate are expected to use the nation’s debt limit as leverage to push for policy changes.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that temporary actions to prevent the country from defaulting would be sufficient to carry the U.S. through early June, setting up a rough deadline for a showdown in Congress.
The White House is involved and in touch, the press secretary said.
“Our office of legislative affairs has been in touch with the new congress to make sure that they know who to reach out to,” said Jean-Pierre. “We’re always having conversations with members of Congress. The president always has multiple conversations with members of Congress, as you know.”
But ultimately, it will be Congress that makes the decisions.
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White House spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement Friday afternoon saying the debt ceiling fight was like “holding a gun” to millions of jobs and retirement accounts.
“Inflation is declining, and unemployment is the lowest in 50 years,” Bates said. “Threatening to reverse those trends by single-handedly, actively killing millions of jobs, bankrupting countless businesses, and devastating Americans’ 401ks unless you can force an extreme agenda on the country that Americans don’t support is malfeasance.”
