Senate Republicans threaten to filibuster ANY plan that doesn’t have spending cuts

Republicans and The White House are still hopelessly deadlocked over debt limit negotiations with just 24 hours until President Biden meets with the ‘Big Four’ congressional leaders and with three weeks until the U.S. could default on its debt.

The GOP and Biden are refusing to budge during negotiations as the day the government runs out of cash edges even closer.

Republican Senators have backed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s position that the borrowing cap won’t be lifted if without spending cuts.

Meanwhile the White House is standing firm on the vow to keep federal spending at its current level by raising taxes on high earners and wealthy corporations.

A group of 43 GOP senators, led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, over the weekend threatened to block a deal on the debt ceiling that wasn’t attached to ‘substantive’ budget cuts.

The group is large enough to filibuster a clean debt ceiling bill in the Senate – meaning such legislation would fail in both chambers of Congress. 

President Biden has insisted budget cuts not be attached to increasing the nation’s borrowing limit while Speaker Kevin McCarthy has long insisted the GOP-led House won’t agree to lift the debt limit without curbing spending. 

A group of 43 GOP senators, led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, over the weekend threatened to block a deal on the debt ceiling that wasn’t attached to ‘substantive’ budget cuts

President Biden will meet with Speaker McCarthy on Tuesday 

Biden is set to met with the ‘Big Four’ on Tuesday – McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – as the clock ticks down to June 1, the date the Treasury Department has said the U.S. could run out of funds to pay its bills. 

‘Our economy is in free fall due to unsustainable fiscal policies. This trajectory must be addressed with fiscal reforms,’ the letter to Schumer read. 

‘As such, we will not be voting for cloture on any bill that raises the debt ceiling without substantive spending and budget reforms.’ 

The only GOP senators not to sign the letter were: Susan Collins, Maine, Josh Hawley, Mo., John Kennedy, La., Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Rand Paul, Ky., and Mitt Romney, Utah. 

House Republicans passed a debt ceiling bill on April 24 that would raise the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion in exchange for $4.5 trillion that Schumer has insisted is ‘dead on arrival’ in the Senate.

Meanwhile, a union of government employees on Monday sued Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and President Joe Biden to try to stop them from complying with the debt limit. 

The lawsuit, filed by the National Association of Government Employees, says that if Yellen abides by the debt limit once it becomes binding, she would have to choose which federal obligations to actually pay. 

Last week the White House floated the idea of a short-term spending increase before walking that back. Both Schumer and Jeffries have said they don’t want to ‘kick the can down the road’ and insisted on a long-term, clean increase. 

The political stalemate has markets concerned of the possibility of default, which could send the dollar into a tailspin. 

In 2011, the U.S. was at a similar point and came within 72 hours of defaulting on its debt. Then-Vice President Biden stepped in to negotiate with congressional Republicans on behalf of the Obama administration and worked out the Budget Control Act – which mandated $917 billion in budget cuts in exchange for a $900 billion initial increase in the spending limit.

Reports have said that President Obama and Biden agreed never to negotiate on the debt limit again after that.