Dem Sen. Brown: ‘I Don’t Reject’ Biden Bypassing Congress on Debt Limit — McCarthy Has to ‘Pay Our Bills’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) argued that House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — who is the only leader in Congress to pass a bill to raise the debt ceiling — is the only leader in Congress who hasn’t ruled out a default, and “We pay our bills. McCarthy’s got to do that, got to move on this.” Brown also stated that he doesn’t “reject” using the 14th Amendment to bypass Congress on raising the debt limit.

Brown said, “Schumer and McConnell and the Democratic leader in the House all took default off the table. McCarthy won’t. He’s controlled by — look at it this way Chris, Speaker McCarthy went to New York, went to Wall Street, maybe three weeks ago. He got his marching orders, his corporate wish list, and that’s what he’s operating under. He has no control of his right-wing extremist caucus, and we’ve got to keep the pressure on. And you do that, in part — and we’ve all talked about this on the Democratic side — you do that, in part, by showing what these cuts will mean, what his budget cuts would mean, or what default would mean. The budget cuts [mean] cuts to pensions, cuts to veteran’s benefits, cuts to Meals on Wheels. And default would obviously be something even worse. As Biden said, we’re not a deadbeat nation. We pay our bills. McCarthy’s got to do that, got to move on this. And let’s figure out all the budget discussion.”

Host Chris Hayes then asked, “There’s a letter circulating among Senate Democrats urging Biden to prepare to invoke the [14th] Amendment to tackle the debt limit. Of course, the [14th] Amendment has specific words about how the debts of the U.S. shall not be questioned. The letter’s been signed by a number of your Democratic colleagues. Are you going to sign that letter? What’s your feeling about the 14th Amendment being invoked?”

Brown responded, “I don’t reject doing that. I think we keep the pressure, though, now, on McCarthy. I don’t want to give him that out at this point.”

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