Are Democrats suffering from collective amnesia? Their recent refusal to engage in any negotiations at all around the debt limit flies in the face of decades of precedent – and their own comments.
Flashback to the debt limit negotiations in 2011, when practically every Democrat – from Joe Biden to Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi to Chuck Schumer – was calling for negotiations:
- Obama proclaimed, “myself, Joe Biden, my team, we are prepared to meet [with Republicans] for as long as possible to get [the debt limit] resolved.”
- Obama called negotiations a “legitimate debate” and accepted he was “going to have some very tough negotiations” on the debt limit.
- Obama said “everyone is going to have to be willing to compromise” around the debt limit.
- Biden said those taking a “my way or the highway” position on the debt limit need to “learn that they have to have compromise” because “you can’t govern that way.”
- Biden insisted it’s crucial to make “certain compromises” in the “normal” process of negotiating a debt limit increase.
- Biden expressed how “pleased and thankful” he was to negotiate a debt limit increase with the new Republican House.
- Biden called engaging in the debt limit negotiations a “great honor.”
- Pelosi called debt limit negotiations a “good faith initiative.”
- Pelosi said Democrats were “determined to work together” with Republicans to secure a compromise on the debt limit.
- Schumer slammed those with “partisan blinders” who “cling to their ideological positions” on the debt limit.
- Michael Bennet called for “compromise” over raising the debt limit, saying that “this isn’t a time to draw bright lines.”
- Amy Klobuchar decried those who chose to “draw lines in the sand” on debt limit negotiations.
- Chris Coons called for “compromise” on a debt limit increase: “Our leadership need to be willing to make responsible compromises.”
That’s just part of Biden’s and the Democrats’ long history of opposing clean debt ceiling increases and negotiating around the debt limit.
Hopefully, they come to their senses before meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy today. It’s time to work for the American people.
