Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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The nation’s debt ceiling has still not yet been raised, but a Thursday night vote of the U.S. Senate has all but assured it will be before the point at which a crisis would occur.
In the waning hours of Thursday’s session, 59 senators voted in favor of a bill that will allow a final debt ceiling bill to be passed by simple majority and without interference from a filibuster.
The bill was the result of an agreement brokered between Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), leaders of their respective parties in the Senate.
While Schumer enjoyed the support of all 49 of his Democratic colleagues, McConnell had to court votes from 10 fellow Republicans, all of whom had previously joined McConnell in a demand that Senate Democrats raise the debt ceiling on their own.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, one of the Republicans to join McConnell in passing the bill, told Fox News, “I wasn’t happy with the deal that was negotiated. But that’s the deal that ended up being on the table and I want to make sure we raise the debt limit, and we don’t cut Medicare.”
The bill, which was originally meant as a way to prevent Medicare cuts, still requires President Joe Biden’s signature. Following that, both houses of Congress will be required to cast a second vote to increase the debt limit, which is expected to pass by a simple majority along party lines.
The process is expected to move quickly with a vote scheduled for Tuesday as the nation faces a Dec. 15 deadline to raise the ceiling or face defaulting on its debts.
Key in the process Thursday was a procedural vote for cloture, the official way a governing body closes debate on a topic.
With cloture, which passed by a 64-36 margin, the bill is no longer open for debate and now no longer susceptible to a filibuster.
McConnell’s efforts to clear the way for Democrats to pass a debt ceiling increase was not a ringing endorsement of the Democrats’ plan. Rather, McConnell said, this was a way to allow Democrats to pass the bill on their own and be held accountable for whatever fallout occurs because of the change.
“Democrats have wanted to transform the country alone,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “They want to print and borrow trillion after trillion on their own. They want to create even more inflation on their own. So, as Republicans have made clear for months, they will have to own a debt ceiling increase as well.
“This week, the House and the Senate have reached a bipartisan agreement to make that happen. As the Democratic Leader said yesterday that Democrats are, ‘willing to carry the burden.’ And so they will.”