WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) Senate Republicans are united in opposing any effort by the Democrats to raise the US Federal debt ceiling to accommodate massive new spending plans they hope to pass into law, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday.
"Republicans are united in opposition to raising the debt ceiling," McConnell told a weekly press conference of the Republican Senate leadership.
The Senate Republican Leader acknowledged that raising the debt ceiling was necessary. However, the spending plans that the Democrats were trying to push through Congress were so great that they risked forcing the federal government to default into bankruptcy, he added. Therefore they must take sole responsibility for preventing that from happening.
If the Democrats raise the federal debt ceiling on a partisan basis, "they will have the ability and the responsibility to make sure that the federal government (does) not default on that," he said.
McConnell said he believed the current efforts of the Democrats in Congress to expand the range and spending of the federal government were unprecedented.
Measures to raise the debt ceiling must clear both houses before October 1 to avoid the US government defaulting on its obligations. With majorities in both houses, Democrats must overcome internal divisions, especially in the upper house where consensus is necessary, to adopt the measure forthwith.
