LOS ANGELES.–Rejecting the bipartisan stop-gap spending bill to keep the government funded through next spring, 78-year-old President Donald Trump told 52-year-old House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that he could not accept a bill that doesn’t freeze or eliminate the debt ceiling. Trump wants no part of the next continuing budget resolution that would force an increase in the debt ceiling, something added to the national debt. “We’re not going to fall into debt ceiling quicksand,” Trump told ABC News in a phone interview. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with,” either removed entirely or frozen at its current level. Trump expressed concern about more debt on the U.S. economy, something that could lead to a 1929 market crash. Trump knows how Democrats used past increases in the debt ceiling to attack Trump’s economic credentials.
Trump wants 82-year-old President Joe Biden to deal with a government shutdown or compromise with Trump on the debt ceiling. “By doing what I’m doing, I put it onto the Biden administration,” Trump said. “In this administration, not in my administration,” asking Biden to make a simple concession of the debt ceiling to get a new continuing budget resolution. Trump doesn’t want to continue to kick the can down the road on appropriate congressional spending bills that force the government to live within its means. Today’s continuing budget resolution has many Democrat and Republican pork barrel projects, leaving Trump no choice but to put his foot down on the debt ceiling. “The interesting thing, [the debt ceiling] possibly means nothing, or it means [the] depression of 1929,” Trump said, wanting above all else, Democrats to make a concession to him as incoming president.
Trump accepts Republicans general economy idea that the debt ceiling and the national debt add to the perception that the federal budget and national debt are out of control. “Nobody really know, it means nothing, but psychologically in may mean a lot, right? In other words, it doesn’t have a real meaning other than you’ve violated something. And that may be just, one day, half a story , or it may lead to the depression of 1929 and nobody wants to take that chance, except the Democrats,” Trump said. So, when it comes to a another continuing budget resolution, Trump wants the Democrats to make a concession on the debt ceiling, agreeing to freeze it at current levels or end it entirely. Trump isn’t willing to go into the weeds about the current CBR, other than saying that increasing the national debt is not a way to deal with excessive government spending when cuts are necessary.
Democrats have, of course, certainly funding priorities contained in the CBR but unwilling to compromise on any particular line item. While the government approaches a shutdown, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tries to push through a Social Security spending bill that adds millions of new recipients to roles, knowing the system would go bankrupt sooner. So, when it comes to government spending, Democrats have no restraint, knowing that they can’t keep adding to the debt ceiling indefinitely. “I don’t mind the spending for the farmers and for disaster relief from North Carolina, etc. But that all,” Trump said, referring to the $100 billion for disaster relieve and $10 billion for farmers. Democrats don’t want to a limit on the debt ceiling because they want to continue deficit spending, like the $1.8 trillion 2024 federal budget deficit.
Trump was forced in his last term to spend wildly because of the Covid-19 pandemic causing an a economic shutdown, forcing the government to spend lavishly to keep the economy for lapsing into depression. Trump presided over a $3.1 trillion budget deficit in 2020, prompting him to ask to end the debt ceiling before passing a new CBR. House Speaker Johnson finds himself in the same dilemma as his predecessor former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) before he was ousted by House conservatives. “Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said. “That’s what I tried to teach [former House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy, but I obviouly didn’t do such a very good job [with] a shutdown because he kept giving them extensions in my territory, a shutdown only hurts or inures to the person who happens to be president,” Trump said.
Democrats have no excuse other that hubris to oppose Trump’s simple accommodation to end the debt ceiling or freeze it at current levels. Democrats are all geared up to fight Trump something voters didn’t want to see before his inauguration. When it comes to using Trump to end the Ukraine War a avert a new war in Syria between Turkey and the Kurds, Democrats are all in, hoping Trump can lend some clout. Trump asks for very little from Democrats, letting them have all the current profligate spending in the current CBR. When it comes with ending the debt ceiling or freezing it a current levels to accommodate Trump, Democrat want to fight. Democrats will have to learn after Jan. 20, 2025 to pick their battles wisely because Trump has the House and Senate behind him, even if by slim margins. Johnson must show he can get something done on Trump’s debt ceiling request.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
