Threats to weaponize the debt ceiling are more dangerous than ever
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Could 2023 be the year when the debt-ceiling time bomb finally explodes?
In October, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned that Republicans are planning to use the debt limit as leverage to demand spending cuts, potentially including Social Security and Medicare — cuts that President Biden will not accept. Now that Republicans have won control of the House and McCarthy is potentially the next speaker, the threat is real. And this time, thanks to shifting political forces and lower levels of liquidity in the Treasury market, the peril is greater than it has ever been before.
This makes the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress the most consequential since at least 1974. It would be wise to find a way to raise the debt ceiling before control of the House changes.
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