On Monday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated that someone is telling President Joe Biden not to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling because “politically, we’re in good shape, let’s make them play their hand out. The only hand that’s going to be playing out here is the uncertainty of us hitting a debt ceiling and not being able to settle that beforehand.” And stated that we will pay our debts and ensure the good faith of the Treasury.
Manchin said that while he doesn’t think Republicans should threaten to not raise the debt ceiling, “[T]he only side we all should be taking is the side of our country, the American side, it’s not one side over the other. But it makes common sense that, if you have a debt structure, and we’ve accumulated more debt in the last decade, and definitely since — in 20 years…than ever in the history of our country, other than World War II — so, not to sit down and say, how did we get so much — accumulate so much debt so quick, can’t we look and see if we can stop that and — basically, and go back to some normal times? [We] put about $6-8 trillion of new debt on since COVID. We understand that. I think…more than we probably needed to, but whatever, it is what it is. Can we go back to some normal times and basically look at sweeping some accounts that haven’t been used yet? All these things that we’ve talked about. And I’m thinking, the Joe Biden that I know has always been willing to sit down and talk…someone’s basically telling him, oh no, politically, we’re in good shape, let’s make them play their hand out. The only hand that’s going to be playing out here is the uncertainty of us hitting a debt ceiling and not being able to settle that beforehand. And that shouldn’t happen. We all know we’re going to pay our debts. We all know that we’re going to secure the good faith of our Treasury. We’re going to do that.”
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