Republicans, Democrats Both Responsible for Solving Debt Ceiling Puzzle, Experts Say

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) speaks at a hearing to examine the 2020 Census and current activities of the Census Bureau at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 23, 2021. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Negotiation and compromise on both sides are needed to bring federal debt under control and avoid a national financial crisis, according to two fiscal policy experts, each having deep roots in one of the major political parties.

Though differing in their assessment of the best starting point for negotiation—Rob Portman, a Republican senator from Ohio from 2011 to 2023, and Jack Lew, secretary of the Treasury under the Obama administration and former director of the Office of Management and Budget—agreed that Republicans and Democrats must come together and find a solution for the financial well-being of the country.

Portman and Lew both had significant involvement in debt ceiling discussions in 2011 and 2013, though from opposite sides of the table.

Then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill on Feb. 5, 2015. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Lew echoed the Democrats’ talking point that raising the debt limit shouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip in spending negotiations. But he advanced the idea that both problems—paying the nation’s current bills and finding ways to reduce future spending—must be solved.

“I don’t think you'll hear much disagreement in the conversation tonight about whether or not default is a good or a bad idea. Default is a bad idea.

“The question is, is it appropriate to use the debt limit as a way to frame a fiscal discussion?” Lew told The Epoch Times.

Hard Choices

“I’ve seen the way that the debt limit debate has shifted from a piece of must-pass legislation that you could attach something onto, to an existential crisis where, ‘If I don’t get my demands, we’re going to drive off the cliff and default,’” Lew said.

Portman, latching on to the idea of attaching conditions to a debt limit increase, said that using the occasion of reaching the debt limit to push for spending reductions has been successful in the past.

“I’m glad to hear you say that you could have some sidecar on an agreement on the extension of the debt limit because that’s all that’s ever worked,” he said.

Breaking from the Republican party line about protecting Medicare and Social Security in the current negotiations, Portman said entitlement spending would have to be considered in reaching a deal.

“Even if Republicans were willing to make some tough cuts on the discretionary side, and I agree those would be pretty severe cuts, the bigger issue, as we all know, is on a mandatory side,” Portman said.

U.S. President Joe Biden (R) and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 2, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“It’s now 70 percent of the budget. It’s on autopilot. There’s no vehicle for us to address this in the appropriations process. But there is the debt limit context,” he said.

Portman compared the approach of President George H. W. Bush in avoiding a government shutdown in 1990 with the stance of President Joe Biden on raising the debt limit today.

Of Bush’s compromise on raising taxes, something he had steadfastly refused to do in the past, Portman said: “It required the president to take a huge risk. In fact, most believe that’s the primary reason he was not reelected.”

Portman commented on Biden, “Here you have a president who’s saying not only is he not going to take these big risks but he’s not even going to negotiate.”

Asking Republicans to make their proposals for spending cuts public before negotiating with the president only invites criticism and will be unsuccessful, Portman said.

Swift Action

Lew insisted that the Biden administration is willing to negotiate on spending but not on raising the debt limit.

“I haven’t heard the administration say they won’t [discuss] fiscal policy,” Lew said. “I’ve heard them say, ‘We’re not going to negotiate over the debt limit,’ and, ‘We’re not going to do it with a gun to our head.’”

The former Treasury secretary stressed the need for members of Congress to make difficult choices.

Recalling 2011 negotiations over the debt ceiling between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Lew said, “Everything was on the table—taxes, entitlements, discretionary spending—in the grand bargain negotiation between the president and Speaker Boehner.”

The talks were unsuccessful, according to Lew, “largely because of problems getting the votes for it in the Congress.”

“Congress always wants to know the last minute to act,“ he said. ”This is a dangerous subject to drive to the last minute because you could get there before you know it.

“They are going to need to have to do appropriation bills and start soon. The sooner they get started and that negotiation, the better.

“It does not have to happen today or tomorrow but it shouldn’t be June, July, and August before they get to it because, even as you approach the deadline, there will start to be consequences.”