Press Release

MN GOP Representatives cast dangerous votes against raising the debt limit

 

Today, Republican Representatives Jim Hagedorn, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, and Pete Stauber voted against raising the debt limit. If these Republican Representatives had succeeded in blocking a debt limit increase, the U.S. economy would have been plunged into recession, millions of jobs would have been lost, and seniors would have experienced dramatic cuts to the Social Security benefits they rely on. Fortunately, Democrats were able to raise the debt limit and save our economy from the abyss.

A large reason the debt limit needed to be raised in the first place was the almost $8 trillion increase to the U.S. national debt that occurred during the Trump administration. Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation did not object to Trump’s spending, but now that a Democrat is in the White House, they are taking a page out of Trump’s playbook and refusing to pay their bills.

For more information on what the debt limit is and why raising it is vital for the United States economy, see this explainer from the White House.

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“Today, Representatives Hagedorn, Emmer, Fischbach & Stauber voted to cause a financial crisis in the United States, all to spite a Democratic President. Minnesota Republicans’ refusal to pay our nation’s bills is not fiscally conservative, it’s the height of partisan stupidity. 

“While Democrats are working to pass bills to create jobs, lower prescription drug prices, and cut child poverty, Republicans are trying to drive the U.S. economy off a cliff. It is extremely disappointing that the only thing Republican politicians have to offer at this pivotal moment in American history are dangerous political stunts and, of course, pandemic-prolonging misinformation.”