The U.S. Treasury Department has been using what it calls “extraordinary measures” to pay government obligations as a stalemate over raising the debt ceiling continues between congressional Republicans and President Joe Biden. Congressman Bill Huizenga tells us those “extraordinary measures” have been used before.
“This is something that is very serious,” Huizenga said. “We need to pay our debts, but in the past and including when I first came into Congress right after the 2010 election, we were faced with a very similar situation.”
Huizenga says in the past, there would be negotiations over spending so the debt ceiling could be raised. He accused President Biden of playing politics with the issue. Huizenga says the spending changes Republicans want could involve entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.
“No one is talking about ending these programs, no one is talking about cuts to these programs to those that are currently in the system at all. That is not going to happen. But we owe it to ourselves, our grandkids, our future grandkids to have the discussion about how we save these programs and make sure that they will also be able to access them.”
Huizenga says President Biden himself has negotiated with Republicans in the past about the debt ceiling. When asked if there’s any chance the nation will default on its obligations, Huizenga told us, “No.”
