Think that confrontations over the debt ceiling left town
with the Obama? You might want to think again.
“I urge you to raise the debt limit before you leave for the
summer” [on July 28], Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the House Ways and
Means Committee on Wednesday according to the Wall
Street Journal. Mnuchin said that he prefers a clean increase without
conditions.
In response, the House Freedom Caucus released a statement
opposing a clean increase. “The U.S. federal government is drowning in debt, yet
continues to spend into oblivion on the backs of future taxpayers,” the
statement said. “We have an obligation to the American people to tackle
Washington’s out of control spending and put in place measures to get our
country on the right fiscal course.”
The Freedom Caucus adopted a three-fold position on the
issue. First, they categorically oppose a clean increase. Second, the group
agrees that the debt ceiling should be address by Congress before it recesses
for the summer. Finally, the statement demands “that any increase of the debt
ceiling be paired with policy that addresses Washington’s unsustainable
spending by cutting where necessary, capping where able, and working to balance
in the near future.”
The government reached the debt ceiling imposed by Congress
in March. Since then, the Treasury Department has been using cash conservation
methods to keep the government operating. The shuffling of funds is a temporary
solution that typically is only viable for a few months.
Previous estimates indicated that congressional action on
the debt limit would need to be taken by late September or early October.
Earlier this week, budget director Mick Mulvaney told Politico
that the date might come sooner than expected.
“My understanding that the [tax] receipts, currently, are
coming in slower than expected and you may soon hear from [Treasury Secretary
Steven] Mnuchin about a change in the date,” Mulvaney said before the House
Budget Committee.
The US national debt
currently stands at $19.9 trillion. The House Freedom Caucus and other
Republicans fought the Obama Administration on the debt ceiling several times during
the past eight years. In exchange for increasing the debt limit, the GOP was
able to win some concessions
on spending from Obama and the Democrats.
Originally published
on The Resurgent
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