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Trump and the Republicans are playing a weird and delusional game with themselves. The President and his party keep acting like they have a big mandate. Still, sometimes, Speaker Mike Johnson admits the truth that House Republicans won’t be able to raise the debt ceiling or avoid a government shutdown without House and Senate Democratic votes.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at his weekly press conference that Democrats will not help Trump pass his tax plan by voting to raise the debt ceiling.
Jeffries said:
Republicans now control the House, the Senate and the presidency. They promised the country that they would lower the high cost of living. We’re willing to work with our Republican colleagues to address the cost of living crisis that we have in the United States of America or any other issue.
That will improve the quality of life for working-class Americans and the middle class. What we are not willing to do is to enable extreme MAGA Republicans to have a blank check so they can enact massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations and make working-class Americans pay for it through cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Benefits, or Nutritional.
The ball is in the Republicans’ court right now.
When the Democratic House Leader was asked if Trump and the Republicans had reached out to him on these issues, he answered:
The Republicans have not opened up any line of communication with us. And they’ve made clear to America that they have a big, massive, beautiful mandate. Which presumably means to us that they intend to pass a spending agreement on their own, to avoid a government shutdown on their own, and to raise the debt ceiling on their own. They’ve had no communications with us. It’s not hard to find me. They know where I’m at. They know my number. I haven’t received a single call about a single one of these issues.
Video of Jeffries:
Jeffries could not have made it any more clear. Republicans claim to have a mandate, so they are going to have to figure out how to govern, or they will fall on their faces in failure.
The one thing that is certain is that Democrats won’t help them do anything that, in their view, isn’t good for the American people.
Donald Trump needs the debt limit raised before he can cut taxes for the rich, and Hakeem Jeffries is telling him that he’s on his own.
What do you think about Jeffries’s press conference? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
