Senate GOP to McCarthy: Debt fight is all yours

Senate Republicans are happy to leave the hard work on averting a cataclysmic debt default this year to the Houses new speaker.

After Kevin McCarthy whacked last months Senate GOP leadership-backed $1.7 trillion spending plan, upper-chamber Republicans are sitting out the early days of whats shaping up as a standoff between their House counterparts and President Joe Biden. A handful of Senate Republicans helped twice raise the debt ceiling in 2021, and four of those members said on Monday they have no intention of stepping into the breach this time.

In other words, the Senates bipartisan gangs arent riding to the rescue on the debt ceiling yet.

What matters is really what the House can create, said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a frequent cross-aisle negotiator. Theyre in a position, they have the gavels. We have to see what sort of strategy they think works to a successful outcome.

After two years of bipartisan progress on issues Washington once only dreamed of tackling, from gun safety to infrastructure, the current dynamic means the Senate Republican minority is effectively handing the keys to McCarthy to cut a deal with Biden. Senate Democrats had hoped to clear a clean debt ceiling bill early this year to demonstrate to the House they could get a filibuster-proof majority well ahead of the impending spring deadline, but their Republican colleagues say thats not happening right now.