Dear John,

House Republicans are gearing up once again to use raising the debt ceiling as an opportunity to threaten and extort concessions from Democrats, including so they can gut Social Security and Medicare.

They’re willing to put the global economy at risk and destroy the full faith and credit of the United States in a dangerous game of chicken to get President Biden to cave to their demands.

It’s selfish, irresponsible, and incredibly dangerous. Failure to increase the debt ceiling would produce a recession -- or even depression -- and it wouldn’t actually do anything to limit spending. It simply allows the government to pay bills it has already taken on.

Fortunately, President Biden doesn’t have to put up with the tactics of taking the economy hostage. He can stand strong and demand a clean debt ceiling increase without any other policy measures attached to it. None. Zilch. Nada.

Tell President Biden: Protect the full faith and credit of the United States by refusing to negotiate on the debt ceiling.

President Obama attempted to negotiate with Republicans in order to raise the debt ceiling in 2011.

Those negotiations yielded an agreement that prolonged the Great Recession, led to the downgrading of the United States’s credit rating, and nearly resulted in cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

I was involved in a similar battle over the debt ceiling fight twenty-eight years ago, which holds some lessons for what happens now.

In November 1995, Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling unless Bill Clinton agreed to a package of sweeping spending cuts, welfare overhaul, restraints on Medicare and Medicaid growth, and a balanced budget within seven years.

I, together with other Clinton advisors, urged him not to negotiate. Even if the public didn’t understand that the debt ceiling had less to do with the nation’s future debt than with obligations the United States had made in the past, we couldn’t allow the Republicans to hold the economy hostage. The full faith and credit of the United States was at stake. It should not be negotiable.

Clinton agreed. “If they send me a budget that says simply, ‘You take our cuts or we’ll let the country go into default,’ I will veto it,” he said. He called the Republican tactics “economic blackmail,” which they were.

President Biden must take the same approach. He cannot allow the government-by-hostage-crisis to become routine.

Please join me in calling on the President to lead and protect the full faith and credit of the United States by refusing to negotiate on the debt ceiling now.

Thank you for taking action today,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action