The U.S. Debt-Ceiling Drama Is Back, But Democrats Can Finally Break the Cycle

Joe Biden has had to confront plenty of new problems since becoming president, from a Covid-19 pandemic that won’t go away to a botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Now he’s about to face an old one: the federal government is running out of money, and Republicans insist they’ll allow a debt default unless Biden abandons the $3.5 trillion spending bill that’s the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.

“Let me be crystal clear about this,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, told reporters last week. “Republicans are united in opposition to raising the debt ceiling.” Democrats, unfazed, aren’t buying it and will try to force Republicans to join them in tending to a national debt that’s climbed above $28 trillion. No one doubts that the consequences of default would be severe. “Failing to raise the debt limit would produce widespread economic catastrophe,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned last week.