On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “The Bottom Line,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) stated that many Republicans aren’t opposed to raising the debt limit, but need spending concessions to go with it and that he believes it’s better to raise the debt limit through reconciliation once Republicans take control of Congress so they don’t need Democratic votes.
Harris said, “[T]here are a lot of Republicans who don’t mind if we raise the debt ceiling, but we have to get some spending concessions with it. And this bill, of course, makes no spending concessions whatsoever.”
He added, “[T]here are other pathways to get this debt ceiling increased. One pathway is actually, once we take the majority, through reconciliation, we don’t need any Democrat votes to deal with it. I personally think that’s a better pathway to take. The speaker’s going to try this pathway, I think he’s going to find that the Democrats are not going to be cooperative with raising the debt ceiling this way. And look, we may end up having to do it the other way and do something else later tonight or tomorrow to make sure the government stays open until we get sworn in, and, then, ultimately, President Trump gets sworn in.”
Harris further stated that “we have to break our habit of paying for disasters, and then not looking elsewhere in the budget to prioritize, to make sure that we don’t have to raise people’s taxes, or, worse than that, add to our federal debt and deficit.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
