ICYMI: Washington Post Editorial: The Nation Faces Financial Calamity. Republicans Will Be to Blame

Over the weekend, the Washington Post editorial board weighed in again to call on Republicans to fulfill their shared, bipartisan responsibility to address the debt limit and protect our economy from catastrophe—just as Democrats did three times under the previous Administration.

They write that Sen. McConnell is squarely to blame for this growing cloud over our economy, saying "The nation faces an epochal financial disaster if Congress fails to raise the debt limit, forcing the country to default on its obligations and inviting a global financial panic. If that happens, there will be no doubt about who is at fault: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his Republican caucus, who are playing games with the full faith and credit of the United States."

The editorial similarly underscores the long-term consequences of Sen. McConnell's political brinkmanship with our economic security, noting "Even if Democrats manage to force through a debt limit hike this time, Mr. McConnell's out-of-nowhere standard placing all the responsibility on the majority party will make it much harder to lift the debt ceiling going forward, and correspondingly more likely that the nation will one day walk off the cliff even if it manages to step back now."

The Washington Post's editorial board joins a growing list of leading voices who have condemned McConnell and congressional Republicans' decision to play political games with the economy—including major business leaders and trade associations, a bipartisan group of former Treasury secretaries, and a coalition of state and local officials.

Washington Post editorial: This shouldn't be hard: Republicans must help the U.S. avoid default

Congressional Democrats released a stopgap funding bill Monday that would keep the United States from defaulting on its debts. A vote in favor, in other words, is a vote for sanity. Unfortunately, there may not be 10 Senate Republicans on the sane side of the issue.

The measure would fund the federal government until December. Failing to approve it would shut the government in the middle of a resurgent pandemic. But that would be nothing compared with the calamity that would occur if another key element failed to pass Congress: suspending the federal debt limit until December of next year.

A cap on the amount of debt the United States can incur, the debt limit does not authorize any new spending; it just allows the government to finance spending Congress already has approved. Because federal revenue comes in waves, and because the United States runs a deficit, the government can rely for only so long on its monthly income. The treasury must issue bonds to cover the gap between what Congress has promised to pay and the government's means to pay it. Dealing with the debt limit is typically a bipartisan exercise, in part because failing to do so would be catastrophic.

Pointing out that Congress has raised or suspended the debt limit 80 times since 1960, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Sunday that, absent immediate congressional action to lift the limit, the United States would default on its obligations sometime in October. "The U.S. has never defaulted. Not once. Doing so would likely precipitate a historic financial crisis that would compound the damage of the continuing public health emergency," Ms. Yellen wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "Default could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost."

Republicans have been enthusiastic participants in running up the debt, with both tax cuts and covid-19 relief, receiving Democratic support to suspend the debt limit during the Trump years. Yet Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insists that Republicans will not help Democrats raise or suspend the debt limit, arguing that the majority could do so in a "reconciliation" bill that could pass the Senate with only Democratic votes. This is impractical as well as irresponsible: The Democrats' reconciliation bill, which they intend to use to beef up the social safety net, is nowhere near ready for a vote.

For their part, the Democrats have refused to negotiate with Republicans to attract their support to deal with the debt limit outside the reconciliation process. And why should they? Lawmakers can horse-trade, argue and obstruct on other issues, but on the fundamental question of whether the federal government will make good on its obligations, there should be no questions, objections or conditions: It should pass 100 to zero in the Senate. Stewing in the minority, Republicans may feel as though the Democrats must offer them something. No; the good of the nation should be enough motivation for them to act. The full faith and credit of the United States is not a political plaything.