Chuck to pols: Do your duty or just forget your recess

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned lawmakers on Monday that they won’t be going anywhere for the planned fall recess if there isn’t a breakthrough on raising the debt ceiling.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to Democratic colleagues that they cannot allow the country to get any closer to the estimated doomsday deadline of Oct. 18 when the Treasury could default on its obligations if no action is taken.

“If [Minority Leader Mitch McConnell] and his colleagues continue to obstruct our ability to quickly resolve the debt issue, the Senate may have to remain in session through the weekend and possibly through the recess to finish our work,” Schumer added.

Democrats are hoping to resolve an intraparty dispute between moderates and progressives that would allow them to pass both President Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and a bigger expansion of the social safety net.

If they can agree on those two bills, Democrats could add the measure raising the debt ceiling to the budget reconciliation bill and pass it with only a simple majority in the Senate.

But with Democrats still haggling over the price tag for the budget bill, they want to raise the debt ceiling in a stand-alone bill that would need a 60-vote majority in the Senate to overcome a GOP filibuster.

Republicans counter that if Democrats want to spend trillions more in taxpayer dollars, they should not expect any GOP help.

Schumer and McConnell continued debating the debt ceiling when the Senate convened Monday afternoon.

“Your lieutenants in Congress must understand that you do not want your unified Democratic government to sleepwalk toward an avoidable catastrophe,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said.

But Schumer said Democrats allowed for an up-or-down vote back then rather than requiring the majority to overcome a filibuster. He said Republicans should follow that example when he seeks to bring up the House-passed bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022.

“The fact is we don’t have the luxury of waiting until Oct. 18 to extend the debt ceiling,” Schumer added. “Even a near miss can have dramatic consequences.”