Debt ceiling standoff between Biden and GOP must end quickly


On Tuesday, May 16, President Biden met with top Republican and Democratic leaders to deliberate on raising the debt ceiling, underscoring lawmakers’ focus on avoiding default. Though Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) rarely see eye to eye, sources say they understand that a deal must be hammered out.

Straight Arrow News contributor John Fortier asserts that while the negotiations are challenging, a prompt settlement between the two parties is paramount.

We are in the middle of a debate over raising the debt ceiling. At the end of the day, we will have to raise the debt ceiling but this will happen as the result of a negotiation between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Democratic President Joe Biden, and a Democratically-controlled Senate.

There’s plenty of room to consider reform of the debt ceiling process in the future but in the near term, this is no time for constitutionally-dubious tactics, or other ways of trying to get around the core principle that ultimately Congress has to authorize debt issued by the government.

I will consider four points:

1) Why we must raise the debt ceiling.

2) Why we have the debt ceiling limit in the first place and Congress’s constitutional role in raising debt.

3) Why this is not the time for on-the-fly reform to the process, or even worse, employing novel and dubious constitutional end-arounds.

4) Why what is needed is a negotiated settlement.