Statements On the Debt Ceiling Deal
Updated May 31, 2023
Author: Alan Barber, Policy Director (alan@progressivecaucuscenter.org)
Introduction
The White House negotiated with House Republican Leadership to lift the debt limit with the release of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 on May 28, 2023. If signed into law, the deal would avert an unprecedented default and ensure the U.S. Government can continue to meet its financial obligations by lifting the debt ceiling through 2025.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the deal will reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. The deal includes changes to nondefense discretionary funding (NDD) that clawback funds to crack down on wealthy tax evaders; expands work requirements for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (which actually increases spending according to the CBO); and caps environmental funding and weakening environmental protections. The Act does little to address excessive Pentagon spending or the tax cuts for the wealthy that are actually at the root of the current federal debt.
You can find details of the agreement in the CPC Center explainer, “Breaking Down the Debt Ceiling Deal.”
Below, you can find statements from CPC Center partners and allies on the debt limit deal.
Statements
The ADC:
“The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is relieved that US Government officials have agreed to prevent a catastrophic default, protecting the full faith and credit of the United States. While we are concerned about some of the policy changes and funding conditions that are included in the agreement, none are significant enough to warrant the massive economic consequences that would result from the US defaulting on its debt. ADC will continue to track the progress of the proposed bill.” Full statement here.
“While President Biden pushed for closing tax loopholes and taxing the wealthy, the House Republicans unilaterally rejected that option, instead demanding that all the deficit reduction come from benefit cuts targeted at the poor and programs providing essential government services while letting the wealthy pay lower tax rates than the rest of us.” Full statement here.
Center for American Progress:
“...The United States’ long-term fiscal health requires us to reform this broken debt ceiling process and to roll back irresponsible tax cuts for the richest Americans that were never paid for.” Full statement here.
Center for Economic and Policy Research:
“... the current public debt poses no threat to the US economy. The annual net interest payments on the debt by the federal government were just 1.9 percent of GDP in 2022, which is quite reasonable. During the 1990s, this figure averaged about 3 percent annually, and the United States experienced an economic expansion that was the longest we had lived through up to that time.” Full statement here.
Center for Progressive Reform:
“Indeed, roughly a quarter of the 99-page-long debt ceiling bill is dedicated to watering down the basic protections NEPA has offered communities for the last 50 years, including the power to weigh in on environmentally destructive activities that threaten to harm them, their families, and neighbors. Low-wealth people and communities of color are most at risk.” Full statement here.
“We don’t need meaningless deals and devastating cuts in the name of self-imposed debt ceilings; we need structural, bold investments in paid leave, affordable health care, child care infrastructure, safe housing, climate solutions and good union jobs. In order to build an America where a multi-racial majority can thrive, we must abolish the debt ceiling.”
Food Research and Action Center (FRAC):
“The proposed debt ceiling agreement comes on the backs of people all across America trying to make ends meet. The expansion of cruel, harsh, and arbitrary time limits on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for older unemployed and underemployed adults struggling in the labor market will only deepen hunger and poverty.” Full statement by FRAC President Luis Guardia
Friends of the Earth:
“… In addition to attacking bedrock environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the legislation also forces the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a gas project previously denied permits for a variety of water-quality and environmental justice concerns. “ Full statement here.
Greenpeace USA:
“None of these measures belong in a bill to raise the debt ceiling. Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 times to permanently raise, extend, or revise the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.” Full statement here.
The Groundwork Collaborative:
“While funding freezes are better than cuts, they are nothing for lawmakers to boast about. After inflation eats its share, flat funding will result in fewer households accessing rental assistance, fewer kids in Head Start, and fewer services for seniors.” Full statement here.
Institute for Policy Studie (IPS):
"The deal makes it harder for the poor to get needed support and easier for the wealthy to cheat on taxes. We’re also appalled that the military share of the discretionary budget will go from 53% to almost 56%. Even worse: This fight didn't have to happen."
IPS Criminalization of Race and Poverty Program:
“The debt ceiling is an artifice that has only been used by conservative lawmakers to shift government resources from the poor to the rich.”
Full statement here.
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:
“...Lawmakers serious about preventing another debt fiasco such as this one must consider raising taxes.” Full statement here.
“We are relieved that there is a bipartisan deal that averts a catastrophic default, but we shouldn’t have been in this position to begin with. The same group of extremists who have been attacking our bodily autonomy and chipping away at our freedoms manufactured this crisis to keep power, resources, and wealth in the hands of a privileged few.” Full statement here.
“The legislation is a significant improvement over the radical House Republican Default on America Act, but it still has vast flaws. It stipulates inflation-adjusted cuts in crucial programs from nutrition assistance to health care to environmental enforcement to Head Start and much more, at a time when we should be increasing spending to address income inequality and America’s other pressing problems. It cuts spending to help the vulnerable and fails to raise taxes on corporations and the super-rich. The increase in the amount of money for the already out-of-control Pentagon budget and the inclusion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline are particularly egregious.” Full statement here.
“The media needs to quit deferring to the debt ceiling’s political theater and engage more with the essentially uncontroverted legal experts pointing out that it cannot be implemented in a constitutional manner.” Full statement here.
The Coalition on Human Needs has also compiled a list of statements and responses to the debt deal which can be found here.