We need to get rid of the debt ceiling — permanently.

Today would have been the day that America could have gone into default. But after a months-long song-and-dance of debt ceiling negotiations with Republicans — who were demanding drastic cuts to critical programs in order to allow the debt ceiling to be raised — Congress just came to an agreement and narrowly avoided a default.

President Biden did his job protecting our economy from a bunch of hostage takers, but that is not how we should run this government.

There’s nothing that makes any sense about this process — and we should never have been put in this position to begin with.

We can’t just make it through this game of “will-they-or-won’t-they?” once again and mop our brows and say, “phew, this is done” and hope that it doesn’t happen again in two years. Yes, we avoided a default — and that is a good thing — but at what cost?

The deal to suspend the debt ceiling included more work requirements for relief, program spending caps, and officially ended President Biden’s freeze on student loan repayments by the end of August — and restricted his ability to reinstate a moratorium on student debt payments.

So, I’m calling for Democrats to make it a top priority just to get rid of this useless and harmful debt ceiling process. The Republicans have shown us enough times now how they plan to use it to throw a tantrum, potentially blow up our economy, and seriously hurt hardworking people across the country in order to get their way.

The American people deserve better from their government — and I’m going to fight hard for this.

Elizabeth