Trump says ‘lots of good reasons’ to get rid of US debt ceiling
Trump again defies Republican orthodoxy
President Donald Trump said on Thursday there are “a lot of good reasons” to get rid of the US debt ceiling as Senate Democrats began exploring a possible deal with the president to end the recurring fiscal stand-offs.
“For many years, people have been talking about getting rid of debt ceiling altogether,” Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House. “And there are a lot of good reasons to do that, so certainly that’s something that will be discussed. We even discussed it at the meeting that we had yesterday.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Trump agreed during an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday to pursue a negotiation aimed at permanently ending the brinkmanship over a possible default on the nation’s debt, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Schumer broached the idea with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in a meeting attended by Republican leaders where Trump sided with Democrats on a deal to combine a short-term debt limit extension with a Hurricane Harvey relief bill.
Eliminating the debt limit altogether would be very difficult for many Republicans in Congress to swallow. Conservatives have used the ceiling on borrowing authority as a negotiating point to try to force broader government spending cuts.