COLORADO — The House Rules Committee passed the debt ceiling bill negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a 7-6 vote Tuesday night.
The U.S. Department of Treasury said Congress has acted 78 different times to raise, extend or revise the definition of the debt limit since 1960. Tatiana Bailey, an economist in Colorado Springs and Executive Director of Data-Driven Economic Strategies, said the last-minute deal could lead to higher interest rates on everything from credit cards to mortgage rates. She said our nation saw those impacts after a similar debt ceiling bill was passed in 2011.
"Foreign investors looked at this, and they're like, 'Really, the U.S. government can't make decisions...on raising the debt ceiling and how they're going to pay their bills?' And that increased our interest rate," she said.
Bailey said in a situation where the government could not pay off its debt, it is likely that Social Security payments would be prioritized. She said military spending will not be affected by the debt ceiling bill because it is not a part of the discretionary spending on the table right now.
The debt ceiling bill now moves to the House for a vote expected on Wednesday. If it passes, it then goes to the Senate for a vote and final approval by President Biden. The bill is a must-pass for Congress or the nation faces defaulting on its debt, which could lead to a recession.
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