John,

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and MAGA Republicans in Congress are giving working families an impossible choice: Either cut the services we depend on every day or throw our country’s economy off a cliff.

Every few years, the United States reaches a limit on its borrowing. This happened three times during the Trump administration, and all three times, without fanfare, Congress voted to lift the debt ceiling and avert default.

Now, McCarthy refuses to do that. And that means the government will default and not pay its bills. If the U.S. government can’t pay its bills, families and businesses may be unable to pay theirs. Tell your lawmakers to be responsible. America must meet its obligations, pay its bills and prevent a national default on the debt NOW.

McCarthy and extremist Republicans are creating this crisis so they can make deep cuts to popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, cutting healthcare and retirement security from seniors, veterans and working families. And schools and kids will suffer too―feeding programs, supports for kids with special needs and other vital programs are all on the chopping block. But this isn’t just politics―it’s incredibly irresponsible. Failure to pay the bills would cause tremendous economic harm to the American people.

By refusing to raise the debt ceiling and pay our bills, lawmakers would be threatening funding for public education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans and active military members, and federal employees. Even more, this political gamesmanship would also drive up interest rates and make costs skyrocket for car payments, mortgages, credit cards, student loans and more.

Make no mistake: This is a forced crisis, and the extreme wing of the GOP needs to stop playing this game now. Tell Congress to pay the bills and raise the debt ceiling to prevent an economic disaster.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President