Merkley: I Can’t Pass Debt Limit Bill to Avoid Default Due to Impact on ‘Climate, Which Is the Biggest Issue Facing Humanity’

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said that he plans to vote against the debt ceiling bill and one reason is because of the bill’s “significant impact…on fighting climate, which is the biggest issue facing humanity,” is so bad that he can’t pass the bill to avoid default.

Merkley stated that “this is a climate catastrophe. This bill proceeds to set a couple of precedents that are really terrible for the future.”

Later, he stated that he thinks the bill will pass in the Senate, and “what we end up doing, and [the] great irony is the majority of the votes are coming from Democrats for an agenda that is the Republican agenda. Even Republicans are scratching their heads over how this came to be. And it really comes from Democrats wanting to back up the president. And I certainly have that instinct most of the time. But this time, because of the significant impact on everything my constituents in Oregon, across my state, are saying they need, and this undermines that, in addition, the significant impact of these precedents on fighting climate, which is the biggest issue facing humanity, I cannot let it go.”

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