Congress battles over budget, debt limit as shutdown deadline looms
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The federal budget is at a standstill in the U.S. Senate as the deadline to fund the government quickly approaches. One hangup has been the national debt ceiling, which Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on.
Thursday is the last day of the fiscal year, and if a federal budget does not pass the government will go into a full shutdown at 12:01 a.m. The budget was held back because it was attached to a Democratic attempt to raise the debt ceiling, which Senate Republicans strongly opposed. A new proposed budget without the raised debt ceiling could make its way through Congress as soon as Wednesday.
The House on Wednesday afternoon passed a budget bill without the debt ceiling limit increase. That bill will now head to the Senate.
However, Congress still has to make a decision on the debt ceiling before the government goes over the limit or the federal government will go into default, putting many Americans' fiscal future in jeopardy. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told ABC News that money could run dry as early as Oct. 18 without new legislation. The government will essentially run out of money and be unable to pay federal workers and fund federal programs, such as Medicaid and Social Security.
"So in other words that means we have announced to the world and everybody who has lent money to us, we can't pay our debts," said Terry Smith, head of the political science department at Columbia College.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told ABC 17 News that Democrats don't need the support of Republicans to raise the debt ceiling, since they're the majority party.
"They spent trillions of dollars already this year, and they want to spend trillions more in the next year or two, to come on a radical, radical left-wing agenda, like again amnesty for illegals," Hawley said.
Republicans have objected to the size of the $3.5 trillion bill, which includes spending on items such as renewable energy, expanding preschool and subsidizing child care.
Smith said the reason the debt ceiling isn't passing is partisan politics. Republicans are opposing raising the debt ceiling because they want Democrats to take full responsibility for the overspending, but Democrats say a lot of the spending happened under the Trump administration.
Hawley does not predict a government shutdown will happen -- and a new government funding bill that doesn't include the debt ceiling may be enough to get Republicans on board.
"What they've tried to do is put together the resolution to fund the government with a debt ceiling increase and try to force Republicans to vote for it, because the Democrats don't want to actually be responsible to raise the debt ceiling for their outrageous spending and their socialist agenda," Hawley said.
Check back for more on this developing story and watch ABC 17 News at 6.
