Tipsheet

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Has Quite the Take on Who's to Blame for Debt Ceiling Plan

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 04, 2023 3:30 PM

A plan to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default by the June 5 deadline was approved by Congress late last week and signed by President Joe Biden. There was a lot in it that made both sides unhappy, but Republicans nevertheless did get a win, specifically House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Even though she was among those voting in favor of the deal, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) hasn't stopped being a sore winner. She also has a very curious, and faulty, idea of who is to blame.

While on MSNBC's "Politics Nation," the congresswoman on Saturday was discussing with host Rev. Al Sharpton about how "some of the current candidates for the Republican presidential nomination trash the debt deal." 

Just as she had done throughout the segment, Rep. Wasserman Schultz was all too happy to criticize some of these candidates, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of her state of Florida, as well as former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, both of South Carolina.

"The nerve of MAGA extremism like DeSantis and Nikki Haley and Tim Scott--they refused to even put on the table restoring some of the $1.9 trillion tax cuts that were unpaid for, that blew a hole in our deficit on their watch, under Donald Trump," she complained.

Of those three, only Scott is in Congress. Even still, the negotiations mostly took place between House Republicans and the White House. Scott voted against the plan, calling it "irresponsible." 

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DeSantis, who opposed the plan, hasn't been in Congress since he resigned to run for governor in September 2018. 

Haley has never even been in Congress, having served as ambassador to the United Nations and in the South Carolina House of Representatives. She too criticized the plan, and even suggested that she's never been in Congress makes her more electable on the issue. "The best way to fix Washington's spending addiction is to elect people who have not been part of the problem," she said.

While Wasserman Schultz had been prompted to discuss Republican presidential candidates, she should absolutely know better than to suggest those who were nowhere near the negotiation "table" and who nothing happened "on their watch," had more of a role than they did. 

A press release following her vote also seeks to come at it as if Wasserman Schultz herself had more of a hand in avoiding default. "Wasserman Schultz Protects the American People From Default By Voting For The Bipartisan Budget Agreement," the headline proclaimed. "I’m glad we have President Biden's seasoned experience to produce an agreement that protects veterans' health care, avoids an economic catastrophe, and ensures more vulnerable people will benefit from food assistance benefits," it concluded with, also praising Biden.

Past remarks have shown a visceral reaction, though, to some of the plans from Republicans. "After carefully reviewing the Bipartisan Budget Agreement negotiated by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, which will raise the debt limit until January 2025 and reject the extreme Republican proposed funding cuts, I have decided that, on balance, I will support the deal," Florida Politics quoted her as saying. "President Biden and House Democrats made it clear throughout this process that defaulting on our debt was never an option we would accept. Defaulting on our debt would be a dereliction of our duties as elected officials and destroy America’s economic recovery. I am appalled that Republicans attempted to hold the economy hostage despite raising the debt ceiling cleanly three times under President Trump."

Wasserman Schultz hasn't exactly been in the news for the best reasons lately. In addition to this latest suggestion about Republican candidates, she's also thrown a fit about FBI whistleblowers not feeling comfortable bringing their information to Democratic members. And, she was forced to resign as the DNC chairwoman right around the time of the 2016 Democratic National Convention after emails revealed she had been favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders as the nominee.