Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus race to resolve debt ceiling impasse before ‘unacceptable’ default

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A bipartisan group of congressmen is hunting for a pathway out of the debt ceiling deadlock that could prevent the nation from paying its bills by June.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), the co-chairs of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, revealed that they are eyeing deep structural reforms to the debt ceiling mechanism and are eager to remedy the impasse which poses a stark risk of an “unacceptable” default on the United States debt payments.”

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“I’d like to go read at the 1917 debt ceiling law itself that established a debt ceiling. Rather than have a numerical dollar amount, which doesn’t make any sense — we just end up raising it every other year — convert it to something like a debt-to-GDP ratio. A number that could be agreed to [and] have a cure period thereafter,” co-chair Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said on CNN’s State of the Union.

On Jan. 19, the U.S. hit its statutory limit on the amount of debt it can take on, prompting the Treasury Department to undergo “extraordinary” measures to pay the nation’s current obligations while Congress scrambles to find a solution. After June 5, the government will be forced to stop making payments to key programs if the debt limit is not elevated, the Treasury Department estimates.

Fitzpatrick declined to disclose specifics of what he or his party wants to be cut from the budget. Fellow co-chair Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) declined to commit to backing any spending cuts, but argued it was important to have conversations.

“I think it’s irresponsible not to have the conversation, just like it’s irresponsible to default on our responsibilities as a country and put the full faith and credit United States at risk, which is exactly why Brian and I, and the Problem Solvers Caucus are working on this,” Gottheimer said.

Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have demanded Republicans send a clean bill to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling without any strings attached, but Republicans have been keen on clawing back spending. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) met with Biden last week despite the Biden administration’s insistence it wouldn’t negotiate.

Just prior to the new threadbare GOP majority getting sworn into the House earlier this year, Congress passed a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, meaning that the U.S. has already committed to a de facto budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. That budget features a roughly trillion dollar deficit.

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Fitzpatrick also hearkened back to deliberations over infrastructure during 2021 in which the Problem Solvers Caucus played an out-sized role in achieving a bipartisan breakthrough.

“We worked in the background. We let the White House work with our Senate counterparts which ended up not working out. Our solution ended up [being] what was signed into law so we’re doing that same work in the background now,” Fitzpatrick explained.

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