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Getting us out of the debt ceiling mess requires both short- and long-term solutions [1]

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Date: 2023-02-04  

A discharge petition is a parliamentary move that allows 218 lawmakers to bring a bill to the U.S. House floor without Speaker approval, effectively bypassing McCarthy.

The rules in a discharge petition are pretty arcane: It can only be considered on certain days of the month, and only after legislation has sat in committee for 30 days. And it almost never succeeds, because you need some members of the ruling party to defy their leadership.

But House Democrats are looking into it, and we may get help from the few-remaining House Republicans who are not in the clutches of MAGA—and it looks promising.

“A discharge petition would only take myself and four of my colleagues on the GOP side to sign with Democrats, if that’s necessary,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a co-chairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, told CNN.

So far, the House Republicans who might join us are being cagey. That's why we need to ratchet up the pressure and demand they join Democratic leadership to end this charade.

Let us be clear: Raising the debt limit does not authorize or allocate new federal spending. It simply allows the Treasury to borrow funds to cover spending already approved.

RELATED: No, Kevin: Raising the debt ceiling isn't like running up your 'credit card' bill

Congress raised the debt limit 18 times under Ronald Reagan, and three times in the Trump era. It was once routine and non-controversial, because not doing so forces the U.S. to default—and can plunge us into a depression.

Sign the petition to Congress: Stop the debt limit chaos. Pass a discharge petition.

Granted, a clean debt limit vote in Congress tomorrow would only prevent fiscal calamity for now. We can (and must) push for it to happen, but we will be back in the same place in a few years unless we also start pushing for long-term solutions.

The United States is essentially the only country that requires a separate vote on raising the debt ceiling, according to economist Richard McGahey. Most governments assume that if spending is authorized, then the necessary funds must be made available, through taxes or borrowing.

Several solutions have been discussed that would prevent a debt ceiling crisis in the future.

On Feb. 1, Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley, Tim Kaine, Chris Coons, and Dianne Feinstein introduced the Protect Our CREDIT Act of 2023, which would enable the president to raise the debt limit—subject to a two-thirds vote of disapproval by Congress. In other words, we’d no longer have to wait for Congress to pass a debt limit increase. The president could do so unilaterally, subject to a two-thirds override.

This idea, say the Act’s authors, was first proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2011, during the last debt limit fight. It's probably the most realistic long-term fix to the problem.

Another proposal would be to eliminate the debt limit altogether, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen supports. In 2022, Democratic Reps. Brendan Boyle and Bill Foster both introduced bills that would have removed the threat of default for good. Other members of Congress have suggested raising the debt limit to an amount the Treasury would never conceivably hit. And, of course, President Joe Biden himself could take executive action by minting a trillion-dollar coin.

Regardless of which approach is taken to end the debt ceiling drama for good, there’s no denying it: We need fundamental reform.

Sign the petition: End the debt limit game of blackmail. Pass real reform that will make sure this never happens again.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/4/2150918/-Getting-us-out-of-the-debt-ceiling-mess-requires-both-short-and-long-term-solutions

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