Warren calls for removing debt ceiling during lame-duck Congress

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that Democrats should raise the debt ceiling during Congress' lame-duck session.

Why it matters: It's still unknown which party will control the House in the next Congress, but Republicans have considered using the debt ceiling to obtain spending cuts from the Biden administration if they control the majority in the chamber, Axios' Alayna Treene reports.

• Failure to raise the debt ceiling, or the fixed amount of debt the government can have outstanding at one time, could cause the U.S. to default on its financial obligations, which has never intentionally happened before.

What they're saying: "No matter what, the United States of America has to honor its outstanding obligations," Warren said.

• "Me? I’d get rid of the debt ceiling altogether. It serves no function except to create leverage for people who are willing to blow up the economy," she added.
• "And that's the problem we've got right now. Many of these new Republicans who are coming in are people who are coming in with exactly one goal: Get Donald Trump elected in 2024. And they see that if they can create chaos in the economy then they think that may move Donald Trump one inch closer to election."
• "So, we've got to take that away from them, take care during the lame duck – take care of raising the debt limit or getting rid of it altogether."

The big picture: Democrats will keep control of the Senate in the next Congress after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) defeated former Nevada Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

• Republicans voted to raise the debt limit three times under the Trump Administration.
• Warren called for fellow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling in an op-ed in the New York Times on Saturday.

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