A Way Out of the Debt Ceiling Crisis
Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on raising the United States federal government’s debt ceiling and preventing a catastrophic default on June 1. President Joe Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday but were unable to resolve their disagreements. Republicans want to extract deep spending cuts from Democrats in exchange for voting to raise the debt ceiling. It’s a battle that has been fought many times in the past.
Meanwhile, unionized government employees are stepping in. The National Association of Government Employees has filed a lawsuit citing the 14th Amendment and calling the debt limit unconstitutional. NAGE president David Holway explained that, “This litigation is both an effort to protect our members from illegal furloughs and to correct an unconstitutional statute that frequently creates uncertainty and anxiety for millions of Americans.”
Jeff Hauser, Executive Director of The Revolving Door Project spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on Rising Up With Sonali about the political fight and the numerous options that are available to lawmakers to end it.
The views expressed here and on Rising Up With Sonali do not necessarily reflect the opinion of YES! Media.
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Sonali Kolhatkar
is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights, 2023). She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She reflects on her professional path in her 2014 TEDx talk, “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host.” She can be reached at sonalikolhatkar.com
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