An upcoming vote in Congress to either raise or suspend the federal borrowing limit is becoming the latest political minefield for Democratic leaders, as they hammer out massive spending and infrastructure bills in the coming weeks.
A two-year suspension of the debt ceiling that was passed in 2019 is set to expire at the end of this month, and Democrats do not appear to have a strategy in place yet to raise the limit to new heights or suspend it again.
“We’re considering all options,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently told Bloomberg News when asked about the Democrats’ strategy.
Republicans, meanwhile, appear poised to revive the debt ceiling wars they waged during the Obama administration after four years of relative silence about the debt limit hikes passed under GOP President Donald Trump.
While the United States has never defaulted on its debt, recent history shows that getting uncomfortably close to it can create chaos. In 2011, House Republicans’ refusal to pass a debt ceiling increase led to a downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating that upset financial markets.
