Let's get serious

It's still winter, but the deficit hawks in the GOP are already returning to Washington, D.C., from their migration during the Trump administration.

Right now, House Republicans — emboldened by their new majority — are setting the global economy on a crash course for collapse by refusing to negotiate a clean raise of the debt ceiling. They've misrepresented facts, gaslit, and flatout ignored questions about it. That's because they don't want to say the quiet part out loud: They want to use the debt ceiling as a negotiating tool to force deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare so they can push through more tax cuts for the super-wealthy and corporations.

The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing financial obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits. The debt limit does not authorize new government spending.

Since 1960, under numerous Democratic and Republican Presidents, Congress has acted on 78 separate occasions to raise the debt ceiling. This includes the three instances when Congressional Republicans voted to increase the debt ceiling to the tune of $7.8 trillion under the Trump Administration.

On Jan. 19, the United States reached its current borrowing cap, and the Treasury Department is now taking extraordinary measures to continue to pay the federal government's obligations. According to the Treasury Department, the debt ceiling will be breached in June unless Congress can agree to raise the debt ceiling.

Sadly, Congressional Republicans are threatening to default on our country's debt for the first time in history to try to force cuts to critical programs like Social Security and Medicare. This would have devastating consequences for the American people, including 69 million Social Security enrollees and 64 million Medicare enrollees. Congress cannot allow the GOP to hold our country's economy hostage so they can pass tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. Partisan attempts to score political points should not come at the expense of the full faith and credit of the United States.

Democrats have fought hard in Congress to deliver for America's working families, tackle the deficit, and ensure the wealthiest individuals and corporations pay their fair share. That is why I was proud to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act (H.R.5376) when it passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Aug. 12, 2022. This critical legislation will lower families' kitchen table costs, create millions of goodpaying jobs, invest in strong climate provisions to save the planet, and lower health care costs. Through the implementation of a 15% corporate minimum tax for the 150 largest corporations, this legislation will also make a historic down payment of $300 billion on reducing the deficit without raising a single tax for the middle class and small businesses.

Passing policies like the Inflation Reduction Act exemplifies the way Congress can pay down the national debt without putting the well-being and lives of millions of Americans in jeopardy. Every year Congress engages in spending negotiations. It's called the appropriations process. We debate our values, fight for our priorities, and in the end, we pass a federal budget. Instead of using this traditional method of pursuing their cuts to the federal budget, Republicans have chosen to threaten our economy and hold seniors and people with disabilities hostage, as a bargaining tool.

My Democratic colleagues and I have made it clear: We will not negotiate on those terms. Doing so is a reckless insult to the American people. Let's debate these issues through the negotiation process that our Founders established for us. President Biden has already shown that he is willing to work with Republicans and negotiate their requests pertaining to federal spending. But the President, and Democrats in Congress, have also made it clear that we will not negotiate the extremist position that Speaker McCarthy and his Congressional Republicans have chosen to take with the debt ceiling.

I'm calling on House Republicans to end these partisan games today. Let's raise the debt ceiling, get to the negotiating table, and work through these issues in the professional and mature way the American people expect and deserve.

— U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, Democrat, California District 8