Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday accused Republicans of playing “brinkmanship” and holding the U.S. economy “hostage” on the debt ceiling.
“Four times Democrats, even when Trump was in power, even two times when Trump and the Republicans had the House and Senate, we could have blocked it,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week,” talking about suspending the debt ceiling. “We did not play brinkmanship.”
As lawmakers near a July deadline to pass an increase to the debt ceiling, Republicans have demanded that the White House and Democrats agree to spending cuts. Democrats have said they won’t commit to cuts, accusing Republicans of threatening to tank the U.S. economy if Democrats do not meet their demands.
“Do it without this risk of hostage-taking where things could blow up because as you know, if we don’t renew the debt ceiling, average American families will be clobbered,” Schumer said on Sunday. “Their interest rates would go up. Their pension savings would go down. The cost of a house would go up … $100,000. So, it’s risky.”
Schumer’s warnings about the dangers of not raising the debt ceiling echo the sentiments of many experts who caution that a U.S. debt default would be catastrophic to both the U.S. and world economy.
But Republicans argue the criticism from Democrats is unfair, saying that the debt limit is a good opportunity to assess spending priorities.
Schumer on ABC also prodded Republicans to come out with their proposal for which spending would be cut. GOP lawmakers have made commitments not to cut Social Security and Medicare, but Schumer and other Democrats have continued to say some Republicans want cuts to those popular programs.
“[Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] will not even say what he wants to cut,” Schumer said. “We’re going to win this fight, and it’s going to be a clean debt ceiling.”