(RightIsRight.co) – The US government runs the risk of defaulting on its debts unless the Democrats and the GOP manage to reach a compromise to increase the borrowing limit, a Republican US lawmaker has warned.
According to GOP US Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, both parties must take the threat of a federal government default seriously.
“The Republicans were largely elected to get control of reckless funding,” Bacon told the ABC News program “This Week” on Sunday.
“That’s the mission that their voters have given them. So, when President Biden says he’s going to refuse to negotiate with Republicans on any concessions, I don’t think that’s right either,” he added.
Biden has declared that he wouldn’t agree to a deal to raise the debt ceiling if it includes Social Security and Medicare cuts.
Many Republicans insist that any agreement to raise the borrowing limit should stipulate a spending decrease.
However, on Sunday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he would be willing to strike a deal with Biden while still noting spending could be reduced in multiple ways.
According to Nebraska US lawmaker Bacon, both the Republicans and the Democrats must be prepared to compromise.
“We control the House [but] the Senate is run by the Democrats. The president is obviously from the Democrat Party, so we can’t get everything we want either,” he said.
Last week, Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the US government would soon reach the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. If that happens, it would have to be spending its current money and resort to “extraordinary measures” to delay a default until June at the latest.
Also, last week, there were reports the Biden administration had started to reach out to GOP lawmakers who seem willing to compromise with the Democrats to raise the ceiling.
“In the last two years, [Biden] ’s invited the Republican leadership to the White House twice. That’s not a very good record, and we’ve got to do our part, too,” the GOP congressman argued.
Commenting on other issues, Bacon welcomed Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of a special counsel to probe Biden’s handling of classified documents after about 20 government records were found in the president’s former Washington, DC office and his Delaware home.
Bacon said Biden’s case and how former President Donald Trump handled classified records should be treated the same way.
“The situations are different, but they’re both about classified information being in areas that are illegal and the improper handling of highly classified information, so I think it shows a sense of fairness to have a special counsel for both,” the Republican lawmaker stated.
He noted that Biden got “caught throwing stones” as he vocally criticized Trump’s possession of classified papers after the end of his term.
The federal government is in danger of defaulting on its debts if Democrats and Republicans can't come to a compromise on raising the nation's borrowing limit, and both sides must take the threat seriously, Rep. Don Bacon warned Sunday. https://t.co/iSUdP6H8DH
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) January 15, 2023
