Donald Trump floats abolishing debt ceiling altogether as federal funding fight with GOP intensifies
President-elect Donald Trump says he would prefer the US debt ceiling being completely abolished — not just raised — as congressional Republicans feud over a funding bill intensifies on Capitol Hill ahead of a government shutdown deadline.“Abolishing the debt ceiling entirely would be the “smartest thing it [Congress] could do.I would support that entirely,” the incoming president told NBC News on Thursday.“The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it.
If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge.”“It doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically,” Trump, 78, said of the debt ceiling, which controls how much the federal government can borrow to pay its bills.The proposal quickly got support from one of Trump’s most vocal rivals in Congress: Sen.Elizabeth Warren.“I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress should terminate the debt limit and never again govern by hostage taking,” Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on X.Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance put Congress into a tailspin Wednesday after issuing a statement slamming the more than 1,500-page spending bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had negotiated with Democrats — and demanding that Congress raise the debt ceiling before the end of President Biden’s term.
By Wednesday evening, the stopgap funding measure was dead, and Republicans are now trying to come up with a solution to force another option that would make it’s way through the Senate before the federal government’s lights do dark at 12:01 a.m.on Saturday.
“If there’s going to be a shutdown, we’re going to start it with a Democratic president,” Trump said of the looming possibility.House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters late Wednesday that his conference was looking at raising the debt ceiling.Johnson, who negotiated with Democrats to try to get the first funding bill through before the deadline, is also facing pressure from some House Republicans to step down as sp...