Forcing a 'debt limit fight' with Biden can only end badly for Republicans: former Bush/Rumsfeld speechwriter

01 February 2023

Countless economists have warned that if the United States were to default on its obligations by failing to raise the debt ceiling, a global financial crisis would occur. Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus are using this as leverage to demand big spending cuts, while Democratic leaders — including President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) — are adamantly opposed to cutting Social Security or Medicare.

Marc Thiessen, a frequent Fox News pundit and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and the late Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, believes that those House Republicans are playing a dangerous game. In an opinion column published by the Washington Post on February 1, Thiessen warns fellow Republicans that no good can come of forcing a “debt limit fight” with Biden and other Democrats.

Thiessen is also critical of Biden’s economic policies in his column but argues that a “debt ceiling fight” will ultimately just benefit Democrats.

“House Republicans should ask themselves: Why on Earth would they do anything that could hurt the economy — and give Biden the pretext to shift blame for his economic fiascoes to them?” Thiessen warns. “That’s exactly what will happen if Republicans force a debt limit fight with the president. If the United States reaches the brink of insolvency, myriad problems could follow: The stock market could plummet, interest rates could skyrocket, our national credit rating could be downgraded, millions of jobs could be lost, and inflation could climb even further. And Republicans would assume ownership of the economic debacle.”

The former Bush/Rumsfeld speechwriter continues, “Instead of the ‘Putin price hike,’ as Biden has tried to explain gasoline increases, Biden will begin touting the ‘MAGA price hike’ — wrapping the poor economy around House Republicans’ necks. Why would the GOP hand Biden that kind of opening?”

In the past, Thiessen notes, “debt ceiling fights” were “not good for Republicans.”

“In 1995, after Republicans took control of the House with a much larger majority than they have today, Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) threatened not to raise the debt limit unless President Bill Clinton agreed to $245 billion in tax cuts, restraints on new Medicare and Medicaid spending, and a balanced budget within seven years,” Thiessen recalls. “Republicans didn’t get most of their demands, and they paid for their brinkmanship the following year, when Clinton won reelection in a 379-159 Electoral College landslide.”

Thiessen adds, “In 2011, Republicans again picked a fight over the debt ceiling. This time, it was the Democrats who flinched…. In the end, Obama had the last laugh. He won reelection the next year in another Electoral College landslide, 332-206.

Read Marc Thiessen’s full column at this link(subscription required).

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