The highly antagonistic U.S. Senate on Monday (27th) failed to advance a plan that combines the freezing of debt ceilings and short-term appropriations. Opposing Republicans advocated.
The proposal limits the freezing of debt to 2022 and allows the government to continue to receive funds after the arrival of the new fiscal year on October 1. The Senate finally rejected it with 48 votes in favor and 50 votes against it. For the bill to be passed by the Senate, 60 of the 100 votes must be obtained.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer voted against it in order to reserve room for another meeting. He pledged to take further measures this week to avoid government shutdowns and debt defaults, but did not specify specific measures.
Although the Democrats have a more than half advantage in Congress, there are only three days left before Thursday’s appropriation suspension. Republican Senator Richard Shelby believes that the Senate will not be able to resolve the antagonism in one hour and a half, and the situation may remain unchanged by Thursday.
The two parties generally agreed to the short-term funding plan and continued to inject funds into the government before December 3, but the Democratic Party tied the debt limit case together, which made the Republicans quite dissatisfied. It is reported that in order to win support, Treasury Secretary Yellen called the major Wall Street banks last week to lobby the Republicans, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup CEO Jan Fraser and others.
Independent analysts warned that the U.S. Treasury Department may run out of lending tools in one day between October 15 and November 4.
Unlike the Democratic Party’s proposal to freeze the debt limit until the end of 2022, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell tried to push for another measure to extend funding, but failed.
The Republican Party advocates that the Democrats put forward a number of ambitious fiscal spending plans, and they should rely on their own efforts to raise the debt limit, while the Democrats claimed that most of the new debts occurred during the former President Trump administration.
The Democratic Party’s US$4 trillion economic plan for the Biden administration is also divided into two factions, prompting President Biden to call lawmakers over the weekend to actively lobby. According to people familiar with the matter, Biden is considering reducing the expenditure on electric vehicles and community college tuition for the “humanities infrastructure” part of the 3.5 trillion budget.
Moderate Democrats believe that the $3.5 trillion expenditure is too large, but the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and others have admitted frankly that it may be necessary to reduce the scale to help pass the Congress.
