I Think Yellen Just Told Us How to Stop Build Back Better

Yellen Says Biden’s $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Demands Raising Of The Debt Limit ‘As Soon As Possible’ | The Daily Wire

But as I recall, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Democrats were on their own for the debt ceiling raise. He gave them a temporary reprieve, but made it clear he wasn’t going to bail them out again. He gave them enough time to do it on their own. It does not appear to me that they’ve done anything, and time is once again running out.

“Yesterday, the President signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which appropriates $118 billion for the Highway Trust Fund,” her letter explained. “These funds must be transferred into the Highway Trust Fund within one month after the enactment of the legislation, and the transfer will be completed on December 15. Promptly thereafter, the funds will be invested in nonmarketable Treasury securities subject to the debt limit.”

“While I have a high degree of confidence that Treasury will be able to finance the U.S. government through December 15 and complete the Highway Trust Fund investment, there are scenarios in which Treasury would be left with insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the U.S. government beyond this date,” she continued. “As the federal government’s cash flow is subject to unavoidable variability, I will continue to update Congress as more information becomes available.”

“To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible.”

Suspend. The Democrats always want to suspend it. Then they can pretend there is an infinite supply of money. Both sides do that really, but raising the limit every year allows them to at least pretend they care about it.

I’ve always maintained that the debt limit ceiling should be based on a percentage of GDP. And I would create a law mandating that and have the law set a pretty high percentage initially (because we’re over any sane amount already), and have it slowly drop to a more fiscally responsible number.