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Democratic Senators should use the debt ceiling negotiation as leverage for Congressional action [1]
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Date: 2025-02-22
Even though Trump is engaging in all this slash and burn, the Republicans want to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. Why? Probably to pay for the tax cuts for greedy rich donors. My recommendation is to call Democratic Senators and urge them to use the debt ceiling as leverage. What could Democrats get in leverage? (a) Maybe that the Congress will push back against the firings. IE launch lawsuits to force Trump to rehire virtually all the people he has fired. Many of these firings have been illegal. Sue to reinstate the workers. (They are doing critical work for the people!) (b) Maybe Congress could pass a law banning Musk from having any role in the government (except as an unpaid consultant whispering in Trump’s ear). Musk has created a lot of chaos, much more than Trump 1.0. And Musk has HUGE conflicts of interest. He has massive contracts with the government. Also, his companies are being investigated by many federal agencies. Musk has fired the heads of several of these agencies and/or has slashed personnel in these very agencies. (c) Whatever else you think the Democrats could ask for with this leverage.
So, the first point is to call Democratic Senators and encourage them to use the upcoming debt ceiling vote as leverage. The second point is to point out that they need to be willing to allow the government to run up against the debt ceiling. This might lead to a government shutdown. Democrats don’t like to shut down the government, but if they are not willing to let that happen, they have no leverage.
The third point is the Republicans can’t be trusted. If they make a deal in order to raise the debt ceiling, will Republicans follow through? So, the Democrats should never agree to a $4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. They should only, at most, agree to a smaller one. Then, if the Republicans renege, they can be held to account in the next debt ceiling negotiation, which won’t be too far down the road. If the Republicans do not follow through on their promises, then the Democrats should not agree to further increases in the debt ceiling.
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