Democrats dodge a debt ceiling deal

House Democrats are finding themselves in uncharted waters after President-elect Donald Trump and House Republican leaders proposed raising the federal debt limit, potentially taking a default off the table for the first half of Trump's second term.

The provision embedded in the newly revised continuing resolution set for a House vote Thursday evening looks a lot like what Democrats wanted Republicans to support when presidents of their own party were in power: It suspends the debt ceiling through Jan. 30, 2027, without any corresponding spending cuts.

When Trump first publicly floated addressing the borrowing limit, or eliminating it entirely, on Wednesday evening, it piqued the interest of some Democrats who have long railed against it as nothing more than a potential lure for Republican hostage-taking.

“Let's get rid of the debt limit. Let's be done with it,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “I agree with President-elect Trump,” declared Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), endorsing abolition.

But by Thursday evening, when it became clear that Republicans wanted only a two-year pause hitched to a stopgap funding package that dropped some of their priorities, they rallied against it.

“I’m not simply a no. I’m a hell no,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told his caucus in a closed-door meeting, per three people familiar with his remarks.

Why the turnabout?

As much as Democrats would love to disarm this particular legislative time bomb, they’re not in any mood to negotiate with Republicans after Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk sabotaged the prior deal to keep the government open and provide billions in disaster and farm relief.

“We have a bipartisan, bicameral negotiated deal that we should vote on to keep the government open,” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) told reporters.

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), the incoming chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, said the GOP decision to renege on the initial deal “is so bad that it makes it virtually impossible” to address the debt limit.

“The conversation we need to be having is, how much money are we going to bring into this government to pay for the things we want to do, and given how much money we think we can bring in, what are the things that are most important for us to do?” he said. “And that conversation gets usurped by the whole debate around debt limits and hostage-taking.”

Jeffries sent a clear signal on his debt-limit position to fellow Democrats in a social media post Thursday morning: “GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass.”

Other Democrats quickly fell in line, including some who have long decried brinkmanship over borrowing.

“We have at least six months to resolve the debt ceiling. But we only have hours to prevent a government shutdown. Republicans need to honor the agreement they negotiated and stop manufacturing crises that harm hardworking Americans,” top Budget Committee Democrat Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a statement.

The widespread Democratic opposition means Thursday’s planned vote — under suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds margin — will likely fail. Aside from Democrats, a cadre of conservative House Republicans also appears likely to oppose any attempt to hike or abolish the debt ceiling.

That could leave Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson in a familiar spot: negotiating with the other party over what they would want in return for raising the debt limit.