Democrats flip the script, eyeing debt limit to block Trump's agenda

Source: Washington Post

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DORAL, Florida — Democrats in Congress are considering forcing a showdown over the debt limit to rein in President Donald Trump’s vast plans to reshape the U.S. economy and remake the federal government.

For 30 years, Republicans have used the threat of a national default to make Democrats negotiate over GOP demands. But as America hurtles once again toward a potential debt crisis, Democrats see an opportunity to turn the tables to cut off Trump’s agenda and take the debt limit off the table in future legislative battles.

Last week, the national debt hit the legal limit of $31.4 trillion. (The debt limit does not directly cut spending, but it bars the country from borrowing more money to pay for spending Congress has already approved.) Unless Congress acts to lift or suspend the cap, Trump’s Treasury Department will be forced to stop borrowing sometime this spring. That could trigger a calamitous default, probably tanking the U.S. economy and causing a global crisis.

Republicans control both chambers of Congress as well as the White House and could lift the debt limit on their own. But internal divisions over spending block that path. As the House GOP huddles this week at Trump’s golf resort in Doral to try to resolve their differences, Republican leaders recognize they are likely to need Democratic votes to raise the debt limit — and Democrats know it. “It’s inevitable that they’re going to need us,” Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Massachusetts) told The Washington Post.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/27/trump-debt-ceiling-democrats/