There’s been bipartisan cooperation about working together to raise the debt ceiling, dozens and dozens of times.” This is something that’s been routinely done. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, said McConnell’s position “has to stick in the president’s craw. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Capitol Hill Sept. McConnell wrote to Biden that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reluctance to tackle the debt limit along party lines “is not an excuse it is just a complaint.” He also said he will not provide a “shortcut around procedural hurdles they can clear on their own.”

Now, at perhaps the most critical time, the two aren’t even trying to negotiate. And just a few months ago, McConnell shocked all of Washington when he endorsed Biden’s infrastructure deal. When Biden campaigned for president, he did so as a leader who could reason with an oft-obstinate McConnell. The two leaders have bragged for years about their close working relationship. When asked if he could guarantee that the debt ceiling would be raised, Biden said, “No I can’t.

Monday’s missive and Biden’s speech about the debt ceiling later Monday amount to their first real communication on the most perilous deadline Congress will face this year.īiden told reporters Monday that he had read the letter and planned to speak with McConnell about it. Yet the two aren’t even speaking to each other as Congress approaches a calamitous fight over the debt ceiling. The president and the Senate GOP leader jointly helped avert fiscal catastrophe several times when Biden was vice president due to their long-running relationship and mutual trust.

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