‘Non-starter’: California Democrats blast GOP’s fire trade– www.politico.com
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Democrats are rejecting a tentative pitch by House Republicans to attach wildfire aid to a federal debt limit increase.
GOP lawmakers began floating the idea in meetings this weekend with incoming President Donald Trump. The thinking behind the plan, according to House Republicans, is that they’ll need bipartisan support to raise the cap on federal borrowing authority in the coming months and that including assistance for fire-stricken Southern California would be an incentive for Democrats to help solve one of Trump’s most pressing economic problems this year.
But Democrats are refusing to entertain the deal.
”Why would you be trying to link completely unrelated issues?” California Rep. Ted Lieu, vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in an interview. “We’ve always helped victims of disasters, and to leverage their pain and suffering on totally unrelated issues — that is inappropriate.”
The GOP’s emerging gambit and Democrats’ immediate resistance underscore the dilemma that Republicans face when it comes to raising the debt ceiling and preventing a U.S. default later this year. Hardline fiscal conservatives who have long balked at debt limit increases pose a huge hurdle for Speaker Mike Johnson, where the narrow Republican majority leaves little room to advance legislation along party lines.
“I appreciate Johnson telling everybody he doesn’t have the votes to raise the debt ceiling by telling us he wants to link it to disaster aid,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, said in an interview. “If he wants to raise the debt ceiling, he’s going to have to talk to Democrats, not try to condition disaster aid.”
