If the United States defaulted on its debt, countries like China and Russia, would take advantage of the ensuing “chaos,” Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young claims.
Washington's competitors would get proof that, "we can’t do our basic jobs," she said. "In things like this, we have to step up to the plate and do what’s right for the American people because it’s no less than what [Haines] has laid out,” the director stated during a White House news briefing on May 4.
Weighing in on the standoff over the debt ceiling between House Democrats and Republicans, Young argued that, "it is the wrong path to go down.”
“Look, we saw the partisan process play out. Now we need to pivot to a bipartisan process. That’s the only thing that’s going to make it to the president’s desk and avoid default...Congress needs to do its job,” she added emphatically.
The official referred to remarks made by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the same day. Haines claimed that if the US were to default, it would be “almost a certainty that [China and Russia] would look to take advantage of the opportunity” to demonstrate “that we’re not capable of functioning as a democracy.”
'Default or Disaster'
The US officials made their case after a GOP bill narrowly passed the House last week, tying in raising the debt limit with significant cuts. It would also see a rollback of several of the Democratic President's much-touted programs, presupposing stricter work requirements for those using food assistance programs and Medicaid, ending Joe Biden’s green energy tax credits, and cancel his student loan forgiveness program.
The measure presently has little chance of being cleared in the Senate, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier stating that the upper chamber would be holding hearings to shed light on the "true impact" the GOP-backed legislation would have on working Americans.
Biden is scheduled to meet with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on May 9 at the White House to try to break the impasse on the debt ceiling.
While Biden has insisted that Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling without preconditions, House Republicans have urged deep spending cuts in exchange.
Ahead of the meeting, the two parties continued their back-and-forth over the debt ceiling issue. At a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Thursday, the Democrats argued that the GOP demands could tip the United States into a recession by forcing to choose between either drastic spending cuts or a federal default.
"House Republicans are saying if you don’t let us wreck the economy and whittle down essential government services to the point where we are laying off air traffic controllers, then we will just wreck the economy by refusing to pay the bills instead,” Democratic Senator Patty Murray was cited as fuming.
The choice was “default or disaster,” said panel chairman, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The GOP countered, with Republican Chuck Grassley quipping:
“House Republicans have acted responsibly by passing a debt ceiling increase... In contrast President Biden and Democrats have sat idly by.”
Back in January, the Treasury Department had notified Congress that it had begun using "extraordinary measures" to keep the federal government from defaulting on its debts. Unless the congressional limit on the country’s debt servicing is raised by June 1, the US government will likely begin defaulting on its debt then, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to McCarthy on Monday. A Recent analysis by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) has shown that a protracted default scenario in the United States could lead to the loss of almost eight million jobs, resulting in “severe” economic damage.