Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday that he is not prepared to give Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “a blank check” to raise the debt ceiling.
WATCH:
“Sen. Schumer has a very easy way of raising the debt ceiling with Democratic votes. All he’s got to do is amend the budget resolution with Democratic votes. 50 votes, plus the vice president,” Kennedy said, adding that “It’s like Geico. It’s so easy, even the caveman can do it,” Kennedy continued.
The senator claimed Schumer’s real goal is to raise the debt ceiling without setting any parameters.
“He wants a blank check. I am not going to vote. You can write this down and take it home to momma. I am not going to vote to give Sen. Schumer a blank check,” he added. (RELATED: Congress Barrels Toward Debt Ceiling Catastrophe As Dems, GOP Dig In)
Schumer has demanded that the debt ceiling must be raised this week.
Kennedy described the current atmosphere in the Congress as “folks scurrying around like headless chickens” but said his “position has not changed. My Democratic colleagues want to pass a spending orgy reconciliation bill that will spend $4 trillion, raise trillions in taxes, trillions in debt that would tax, spend and regulate America into European neo-socialism,” he said in reference to the reconciliation bill.
Although he didn’t confirm the veracity of the rumors, Kennedy said there are some in Congress who “believe that Sen. Schumer now has the votes to break the filibuster on the issue of raising the debt ceiling.”
“My attitude is it’s not going to change my position one iota,” Kennedy said. “Not one iota … I’m not going to support this craziness that my President Biden and his new woke left friends are trying to ram down the American people’s throat.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrives at the Capitol on Oct. 4. He and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are trying to guide a funding bill, budget and infrastructure package through a bitterly divided Congress before Friday, when a shutdown is set to go into effect. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Our problem is not that we tax too little. It’s that we spend too much. There has not been a nanosecond, not a nano second spent by either party on either side of the aisle about how to do something more efficiently and save some money.” (RELATED: Top Democrat Admits Congress Can Raise Debt Limit Through Reconciliation. How Would It Work?)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he is willing to agree to a short term extension of the debt ceiling. Multiple Senate Democrats said Wednesday after a full caucus meeting that they will accept McConnell’s offer of a short-term debt ceiling hike in order to avoid a federal default. President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday that the filibuster rules could be amended to allow the debt ceiling to be raised, saying that option is a “a real possibility.”