If there's one thing that Republicans should find solace in regarding this debt ceiling deal, it's that many Democrats are less than thrilled with it. Chief among them is Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She's been making quite a stink the last few days and has openly said she's a "no" on the debt ceiling vote taking place later on Wednesday. She's gone just as hard against Republicans, whom she routinely calls "extreme MAGA Republicans" and claims they have engaged in "hostage taking."
Jayapal's extreme take isn't limited to petty name-calling, though. During her Sunday appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," she lamented to host Jake Tapper that Democrats should have raised the debt ceiling when they were in control of Congress. Not only that, but she doesn't even believe there should be a debt ceiling to raise and claims it "should just be raised automatically," as she once more turned to insults, adding, "We should not allow people to continue to take us hostage."
She was all too proud to share the segment on her social media account.
The debt ceiling is about paying our previous bills, and this entire charade has shown that our country’s obligations should never be in doubt.
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) May 28, 2023
We should suspend the debt ceiling permanently and make sure extreme MAGA Republicans can never hold our economy hostage again. pic.twitter.com/zW4qbj7xmM
Jayapal has since doubled down on her stance, something she's rather open about admitting. As she did on Sunday, Jayapal pushed to elect more Democrats, not just in her own body to once more gain back the majority, but in the Senate as well.
"That's why we need a bigger majority in the Senate of people who are actually going to continue to do what the country needs and what our constitutional obligation is," she said on Sunday. The reason why Democrats didn't raise the debt ceiling last year, Jayapal told Tapper, is that they didn't have enough support. The party is "also governed by a couple of conservative Democrats and/or independents in the Senate who refuse to take the actions that we need to take," Jayapal complained.
"We need to get rid of the debt ceiling when we next take the majorities back," Jayapal says.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) May 30, 2023
The caucus is also looking for a meeting with President Joe Biden, who, if he's not terrified of what progressives are doing to cause disarray in his party, he should be.
Jayapal says she won't be upset if majority of Dems end up supporting this legislation "None of us want the country to go into default"
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) May 30, 2023
But moving forward she's concerned with how Rs handle future obligations. And CPC leadership wants to sit down with Biden
Jayapal isn't the only Democrat speaking up about the debt ceiling agreement. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has said he will support the debt ceiling bill "without hesitation or reservation, or trepidation," as indicated during a weekly press briefing earlier on Wednesday. He and Jayapal seem to disagree there.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he will support debt ceiling bill "without hesitation, reservation or trepidation."
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 31, 2023
"Not because it's perfect. But in divided government, we, of course, cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good." https://t.co/ODQ1safMcq pic.twitter.com/d1VEC9zZd2
His remarks and position on the debt ceiling bill have been trending on Twitter, but that also has to do with an even more concerning position the House minority leader has.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has highlighted remarks from Jeffries, who spoke to MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Tuesday. Just in case there's any question of the biased nature of the segment, the clip begins with Hayes mentioning he wanted to "talk about the sort of hostage-taking aspect of this."
Going through the scenarios of "going through this every time" the debt ceiling has to be raised, including in the event that Biden is still president but with a Republican Congress, Hayes asked, "Has it changed anyone's thinking among your House colleagues that you have to get rid of this thing once and for all?" suggesting doing so statutorily or through action from the White House.
"Where are you on that?" Hayes asked. "Because that seems to me still the unfinished business of this deal."
Without batting an eye, Jeffries said Hayes had made "a very good point." He didn't rule out getting rid of the debt ceiling, calling it "an all the above approach." Jeffries spoke of the current plan to "avoid a default" and "continue to build an economy that works for everyday Americans, building on the great record of accomplishments that came out of the last Congress."
He also went on to insult and denigrate Republican colleagues. "We also have to find our way out of enabling extreme right-wing individuals in the Congress to use the debt ceiling down the road to take us down this hostage-taking exercise and try to extract a painful ransom."
If anyone is "enabling" anything, it's those who continue with reckless spending.
Jeffries went on to offer that "we need to look at the options," calling legislative efforts "the best solution that's in front of us, and to see the opportunities in front of us moving forward," but also offered that "the administration can explore, you know, some of the options that may be available to it outside of the context of the crisis that we're in right now."
In other words, Republicans need to be on guard and stay tuned.
WATCH: Extreme House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries supports the radical plan to abolish the debt ceiling so Democrats can continue their reckless spending spree. pic.twitter.com/YSDS1jpN1Z
— NRCC (@NRCC) May 31, 2023
There are even more members giving their thoughts on the deal, including those you'd expect. As Sarah highlighted last weekend, a town hall that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) gave erupted in chaos. It was hectic throughout, but one of the many reasons was because the squad member called for eliminating the debt ceiling, as she cited the 14th Amendment, something other Democrats, especially in the Senate, have pressured Biden to use, based on the lesser-known Section IV.
An ally of the president, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who served as the House majority whip in the last Congress, shared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he's "not a proponent of having the debt limit," adding, "I don't think we ought to have that at all." After mentioning Denmark's debt limit, Clyburn went on to question, "I don't know why we have this debt limit," and expressed that he wishes "we'd get this thing behind us" so that Congress can "start work on getting rid of the debt limit altogether."
Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn: "I'm not a proponent of having a debt limit. I don't think we ought to have that at all. I've done the study on this." pic.twitter.com/82T4ee16IB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 31, 2023
When it comes to whether or not Biden is willing to invoke the 14th Amendment, he's been cagey on that, and that's not because he acknowledges the dangers of the president taking unilateral action but because he's not sure if the litigation that would no doubt be involved would help solve the current problems.
In a May 17 opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Law Professor Saikrishna Prakash argued against using the 14th Amendment:
Further, even if one assumes the 14th Amendment bars debt defaults, it nowhere authorizes the president to take whatever measures he deems necessary to prevent default. It no more empowers him to take such measures than it does you or me. As per the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the power to “borrow money on the credit of the United States.” If the Constitution bars default and more money is needed to prevent default, Congress must act. The president can’t issue debt on his own say-so.
In his May 20 opinion piece for The Hill, Law Professor Jonathan Turley mentions Prakash's piece as he, too, argues against using the 14th Amendment:
The drafters of this amendment did not want Congress to simply dismiss its obligations to pay off the Union’s debts from the Civil War. Although the amendment is not limited to those debts, it has nothing to do with debt ceilings set by Congress. Default, after all, is not a denial of the validity of debt, but rather a refusal or failure to pay debts in time despite their validity.
Courts have long left it to the political branches to work out such differences in what is often a game of chicken with default. Moreover, as University of Virginia law professor Saikrishna Prakash recently pointed out, there is more than enough federal revenue coming in each month for Biden to avoid default by paying the interest on the debt under existing federal law. That may cause temporary problems for other spending priorities — acute problems, even — but it hardly rises to the level of a constitutional crisis.
Instead, these senators are suggesting that a president does not need congressional approval to borrow and spend trillions of dollars, even though the Constitution explicitly grants both of those powers to Congress alone. They also claim that, by demanding budget cuts as a condition of permitting further borrowing, the House is violating the 14th Amendment.
Turley also referred to the argument to use the 14th Amendment as "constitutionally and logically flawed" in a tweet sharing his opinion piece.
However, the latest shows that Biden is indeed looking at it, as the Washington Post highlighted in their Wednesday morning piece, "Biden suggests using 14th Amendment to stop future debt ceiling standoffs."
"But at least in theory, Biden could return to the question after Congress suspends the borrowing limit this week," the piece warned. "The idea, as expressed by the president, would be to test the novel legal interpretation that holds that the debt ceiling is incompatible with the Constitution at a time when the nation is not on the precipice of default. That would let the courts ponder it without the threat that an adverse ruling would prove calamitous."
In other words, Republicans need to stay tuned. This all speaks to the urgency of Republicans holding onto their majority in the House and gaining it back in the Senate. Fortunately, the map is looking particularly good for the 2024 cycle.
Then again, pollsters have warned that Republicans could still screw it up, an issue Matt Towery raised last week when writing "A Lot Has to Change Quickly for Republicans to Have a Chance in 2024" for RealClearPolitics (RCP). This is a major issue that Republicans should have a say on, and they should feel that much more of an urgency to hold onto the majority.
