They aren’t saying it publicly, but behind the scenes, congressional Republican officials and business leaders are bracing for the nightmare scenario of a debt ceiling crisis potentially worse than the one in 2011 if the GOP retakes the House this year. That’s according to an Axios piece that pays special attention to Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who could be in line for a key budgetary post in a Republican-led house. Smith tells the website bluntly that he thinks holding the nation’s fiscal stability hostage is a valid political strategy to force policy changes on the Biden administration.
Add it to the long list of reasons a Republican House takeover could be disastrous for America — though that danger would be mitigated if Democrats were to finally get rid of the whole debt ceiling concept now, while they control Congress.
The debt ceiling is the amount of money the treasury is allowed under law to borrow to cover America’s financial obligations. The ceiling has routinely been raised over the years as those obligations have increased, a process that used to be uncontroversial. That has changed in today’s deeply divided Congress, with Republicans occasionally seeking leverage over Democratic presidents by threatening to refuse to raise the limit when it’s needed.
