During their original debt ceiling crisis in 2011, GOP leaders routinely argued that it was the Democratic White House, and not Republican lawmakers, that wanted to extend the nation’s borrowing authority. As such, they argued, it was up to the Democratic president and his congressional allies to work out a solution that satisfied the GOP.
Twelve years later, a prominent Senate Republican made an eerily similar pitch. NBC News reported:
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said it should be up to [President Joe] Biden to propose a debt ceiling bill that can pass Congress. “I don’t know why he doesn’t want to do that. I mean, he’s the one who wants to raise the debt ceiling,” Scott said. “He ought to be doing it. He’s the president.”
Right off the bat, it’s worth emphasizing that Biden already has proposed a debt ceiling solution that can pass Congress: Lawmakers can prevent a default and simply extend the nation’s borrowing authority in a clean, simple bill without games, conditions or unnecessary drama.
Can such a measure pass both chambers? Of course it can: This is the exact same approach lawmakers embraced three times during Donald Trump’s presidency, and these votes came and went without notice. For that matter, it’s also the same solution that members of both parties have embraced for the past century, and there’s no reason this year needs to be any different.
It was also odd to see the far-right Floridian suggest it’s up to the White House to fill out the Republicans’ hostage note for them. GOP leaders are threatening to create a deliberate economic catastrophe unless their demands are met, while simultaneously insisting that they have no specific demands. It’s against this backdrop that Scott said he doesn’t know why the president doesn’t just start making concessions, effectively guessing what might make Republicans happy.
The answer is, because that isn’t how hostage crises work. The hostage takers aren’t supposed to ask the ransom payers, “What would you say the hostage is worth?”
But most problematic of all was the senator’s contention that Biden is “the one who wants to raise the debt ceiling.” That’s dangerously wrong: To raise the debt ceiling is to pay the nation’s bills and meet the nation’s fiscal obligations. It’s not something that one party’s president “wants,” it’s something both parties need to recognize as an American priority. Indeed, the senator and his colleagues should “want” this every bit as much as the president does.
The fact that Scott apparently finds this confusing, despite having served on the Senate Budget Committee, is emblematic of his party failing to approach its own crisis in a serious way.