Debt ceiling proposal widens rift between House, Senate Democrats

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
30 Apr 2023 23:54
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Central to the intra-Democrat discord is the plan proposed by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the US debt ceiling in exchange for cuts in government spending.

Congress members leave the House Chamber on January 03, 2023 (AFP)

The scheduled debt ceiling raise on April 30 has been causing discord between Democrat House representatives and Democrat Senators.

Central to the intra-democrat discord is the plan proposed by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the US debt ceiling in exchange for cuts in government spending.

Nearly half of the House Democrats have expressed fondness for McCarthy's initiative such that it presents a potential compromise between the two parties: inviting Biden to negotiate an agreeable decision with McCarthy.

However, Democrat Senators seem to disagree with their House counterparts. The upper chamber Democrats stand firm by the President's decision to accept no concessions on the debt-ceiling raise.

The plan proposed by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the US debt ceiling in exchange for cuts in government spending was criticized last week by Moody's Analytics, who claim the plan would slow growth and cut employment.

The agency argued that if the draft presented by McCarthy on April 17 were passed as is, it would lead to a drop of 0.6 percentage points in US potential growth in 2024 and the elimination of 780,000 jobs.

In comparison to a scenario in which a new ceiling was approved without conditions, unemployment would reach 4.6 percent in March 2024, up from 3.5 percent in March 2023.

President Joe Biden has advocated for such a "clean" lifting of the US borrowing limit, claiming that the deficit spending has already been approved by Congress and is thus not subject to debate.