WASHINGTON – With negotiators for the Biden administration and the Republican House leadership inching toward an agreement to avert an unprecedented default on the government’s debts, lawmakers from both parties who represent Western New York in Congress agree on one thing: They can’t let a default happen.
“We’re not going to default,” said Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Canandaigua Republican who, like Republican Rep. Nicholas A. Langworthy of the Southern Tier, refused to join a conservative rebellion against the emerging deal on Friday.
“Avoiding default is nonnegotiable – it must be our north star and that cannot change,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor last week.
In other words, the Buffalo area’s federal lawmakers are adopting the conventional economic wisdom about the debate over raising the federal debt ceiling. They all say it better get done, and soon.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday that the federal government could reach its congressionally-set debt ceiling as soon as June 5 – and that would leave federal officials unable to pay the nation’s bills. Social Security checks and veterans benefits will go undelivered if the stalemate lasted long enough. Economists predict the nation could sink into a deep recession.
Asked about the ramifications of breaching the debt ceiling, both Tenney and Langworthy downplayed the possibility of a default. In essence, they said they didn’t want to speculate on something they did not think would happen.
“Nobody supports that,” Tenney said. “And the Treasury isn’t going to let it happen.”
Both Tenney and Langworthy cast doubt on whether the government will run out of money as soon as early June. Tenney said Yellen could prioritize the interest payments that the government absolutely must make in order to avoid default, and Langworthy said the treasury secretary is probably using an early June date as a deadline to prod Congress…
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