Dems tie funding to debt bill, GOP digs in

WASHINGTON » Democratic congressional leaders backed by the White House announced Monday they would push ahead with a vote to fund the government and suspend the debt limit, all but daring Republicans who say they will vote against it despite the risk of a fiscal crisis.

Congress is rushing headlong into an all-too-familiar stalemate: The federal government faces a shutdown if funding stops at the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. At the same time, the U.S. risks defaulting on its accumulated debt load if the borrowing limits are not waived or adjusted.

All this while Democratic lawmakers are laboring to shoulder President Joe Biden’s massive $3.5 trillion “build back better” agenda through the House and Senate with stark opposition from Republicans.

“The American people expect our Republican colleagues to live up to their responsibilities and make good on the debts they proudly helped incur,” wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a joint statement.

From the White House, the president backed the congressional leaders’ plan to hold the votes.

“This is a bipartisan responsibility, just as it was under my predecessor,” Biden tweeted. “Blocking it would be inexcusable.”

The magnitude of the challenges ahead and the speed required to accomplish the job are like nothing Congress has faced in recent memory, situating Biden’s entire domestic agenda and the political fate of his Democratic party at a crucial moment.

As Democrats charge ahead, the Republicans as the minority party in Congress hoping to regain control in the next election in 2022 plan to sit back, watching and waiting to see if Biden and his allies can succeed against the odds — or spectacularly fail.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he’s not about to help pay off past debts when Biden is about to pile on more with a “reckless” tax and spending package.

“Since Democrats decided to go it alone, they will not get Senate Republicans’ help with raising the debt limit. I’ve explained this clearly and consistently for over two months,” McConnell said Monday on the Senate floor.

The vote this week on funding to keep the government running past Sept. 30 and allow more borrowing will force the political stalemate into the open.

The Treasury Department warned that it will soon run out of cash-on-hand, and have to rely on incoming receipts to pay its obligations, now at $28.4 trillion. That could force the Treasury to delay or miss payments.

Once a routine matter, lifting the debt ceiling has become a political weapon of choice for Republicans in Washington ever since the 2011 arrival of tea party lawmakers who refused to allow it. At the time, they argued against more spending and the standoff triggered a fiscal crisis.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Democrats are negotiating among themselves over Biden’s big $3.5 trillion package as the price tag likely slips to win over skeptical centrist lawmakers who view it as too much.

The size and scope of Biden’s “Build Back Better” initiative cannot be overstated.

The proposal would impose tax hikes on corporations and wealthy Americans earning beyond $400,000 a year and plow that money back into federal programs for young and old. It would increase and expand government health, education and family support programs for households, children and seniors, and boost environmental infrastructure programs to fight climate change.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE — ASSOCIATED PRESS Climate change activists demonstrate outside the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington Sept. 20.