Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin demanded Tuesday that Republicans nuke the Senate’s filibuster rule that requires legislation receive 60 votes to pass so Democrats can raise the debt ceiling, according to Breitbart News.
“If Senate Republicans want to force Democrats to suspend the debt ceiling on our own, then all they have to do is allow us to remove the 60 vote threshold,” Durbin said about the filibuster. “They’ll have the chance to do so shortly on the Senate floor. I urge them to take it.”
Speaking outside the Senate chamber, Durbin blamed Republicans and former President Donald Trump for the Democrats’ uncomfortable situation: “This debt ceiling reflects the largest increase in the federal deficit in the history of the United States during the four years of Donald Trump, supported all the way by Sen. McConnell and the Republican senators,” he claimed.
But Senate Republicans have made clear they think it is the Democrats’ problem to solve and they will not help them raise it. “Democrats control the entire government—the Senate, the House and the White House. They intend to sideline Republicans and go it alone to slam American families with historic tax hikes and borrowing,” McConnell said on Tuesday “So they will need to raise the debt limit on a partisan basis as well.”