Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he will vote against the bill that President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed upon to raise the debt ceiling and called on Biden to eliminate the ceiling himself through the 14th Amendment.
While he remains opposed to the bill, Sanders said in a statement Wednesday that the agreement could have been “much worse” and is a significant improvement from the Limit, Save, Grow Act that House Republicans passed in April. He said Republicans’ bill would have made major cuts to health care, education, childcare, nutrition assistance and other programs for the next decade, while the agreed upon bill would only make “modest” cuts for the next two years.
“Having said that, I cannot vote for this bill,” Sanders said.
The statement puts Sanders among the group of progressive Democrats who, like some conservative Republicans, have declared their opposition to the deal Biden and McCarthy made to raise the debt ceiling until January 2025. The legislation would also increase work requirements for certain individuals on federal public assistance programs, place a cap on nondefense spending to freeze it for 2024 and raise it by 1 percent in 2025 and make other spending cuts.
Sanders said he cannot “in good conscience” vote for a bill that would make affording the cost of childcare, health care and housing more difficult for working families while helping the wealthiest individuals and companies “cheat” on their taxes.
The bill would revoke $1.4 billion that had been allocated to the Internal Revenue Service through the Inflation Reduction Act last year, specifically to help the agency better enforce its rules on those not fully paying their share of taxes.
Sanders also criticized provisions of the bill that would advance the development of a major gas pipeline in West Virginia, increase military spending — where the U.S. already spends much more than other countries — and would end the federal moratorium on students repaying federal student loans that has been in place throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The fact of the matter is that this bill is totally unnecessary,” Sanders said. “The President has the authority and ability to eliminate the debt ceiling today by invoking the 14th Amendment. I look forward to the day when he exercises this authority and puts an end, once and for all, to the outrageous actions of this extreme right-wing to hold our entire economy hostage in order to get what they want.”
Some have raised the idea that Biden has the authority to invoke section four of the 14th Amendment, which states that the validity of the country’s debt “shall not be questioned,” to unilaterally raise the debt limit himself.
The White House shed doubt on the viability of the strategy last week, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying it would not “deal with the problem that we’re currently having at this moment.”