Biden Adviser: It ‘Should Be Forbidden’ or ‘Against Any Norms’ to Use Debt Limit for ‘Extreme’ Policies

During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of “PBS NewsHour,” Senior Adviser to President Joe Biden Gene Sperling stated that it’s “very important that we think of what type of policies we could do going forward” so people don’t use raising the debt limit as leverage for “extreme measures” and that using the debt ceiling this way “should be forbidden or it should be so heavily discouraged and against any norms that no one” will do so.

Sperling said, “I think it is very important that we think of what type of policies we could do going forward to prevent this. And it should be forbidden or it should be so heavily discouraged and against any norms that no one should take advantage of that basic responsibility the president has to all the people to seek to extort [for] extreme measures. I don’t think the Republicans should have put this in this posture. I do think, at the end of the day, the President was able, with his leadership, to get them to agree to something that was, not fully, but close to the type of bipartisan agreement you would have in a budget in divided government.”

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