A House Democrat on Thursday compared House Republicans to a toddler throwing a temper tantrum for insisting on federal spending cuts before agreeing to raise the government’s borrowing limit.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have a great-granddaughter that falls out and rolls all over the floor and screams when she can’t have her way,” said Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis. “You know what I tell her? ‘Get up off of the floor because you’re not gonna get it.'”
“Get up off the ground and pass this debt ceiling,” Moore chided Republicans.
Democrats have been pushing Republicans for weeks now for saying they will insist on spending cuts, and have no interest in raising the debt ceiling without taking steps to put the government on a more fiscally sustainable path.
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On Thursday, top Democrats in Congress slammed “extreme MAGA Republicans” in the House for not yet producing a proposal to deal with the looming debt ceiling while simultaneously demanding spending cuts in the context of the ongoing debt ceiling talks.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., joined House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other congressional Democrats for a press conference to reveal details about the Joint Economic Committee report on the cost of the U.S. potentially defaulting on its debt.
“House Republicans approach the debt ceiling very dangerously,” Schumer said. “What they do is destabilizing, and could very well lead to nothing short of disaster.”
Senior House GOP lawmakers have been working on a plan that calls for spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. On Tuesday House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas., told Punchbowl News that “this is the best time to do it.”
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“That interest rate pressure that is creating some risk in the banking industry is a result of the inflation that has been induced by the massive amounts of spending,” he said.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the United States could default on the $31.4 trillion of its debt as early as June if the ceiling is not raised, though she said she would use extraordinary measures to stave off a default.
Republicans have said they have no interest in defaulting on the debt and that the two parties should work together to find an agreement that delivers results for both sides.