Biden Needs to Show He’s Serious About the Debt Limit
The president is right not to negotiate with Republicans, but he also needs to take action himself.
He needs to take action now.
Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg
When it comes to the debt ceiling, President Joe Biden is right not to negotiate with House Republicans, whose strategy is to take hostages first and decide the ransom later. But their confusion also demonstrates why his decision doesn’t go far enough.
What Biden needs to do — now, not the day before the US is expected to default — is take action. Specifically, he should instruct Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to resume normal payments. Yellen has already notified Congress that the government has been taking extraordinary measures to prevent a breach of the debt limit, such as altering payments to government-run funds for retirees, and that she can continue to do so for several months.