Debt ceiling deadlines still loom over Congress

Zoë Woods

The recent decision made in Congress kept the U.S. from defaulting on its debts. However, the decision is not a permanent one.

With the current bill set to expire in February, Congress must work fast in order to avoid a repeat of past events.

Zachary Bonner, graduate assistant of political science, said he believes it was a good decision on Congress’s part just to get something going.

“It’s definitely not a long-term solution in my opinion,” Bonner said.

He said he feels Republicans did not have any other choice but to agree to raise the debt ceiling. Within the next year or so, many of them face re-election.

“I think they’ve already brought themselves to the brink of not being re-elected in a lot of cases,” Bonner said.

Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science, said he believes that Sen. Ted Cruz and the tea party part in the House were hoping that the threat of a default would sway the minds of the Obama administration to make changes to the Affordable Care Act.

“It was a game of chicken to see if they could get Obama to blink and he didn’t and so we were within hours of defaulting because [Republicans] thought Obama would blink first and he didn’t,” Schmidt said.

Republicans might get their chance again to try and fight for the defunding of Obamacare in the coming months.

“It is very possible [Republicans] might try and use the same technique again to try and see if they can get anything done but having failed this time I don’t see why they think that Obama would give in or the Democrats would give in if it came around a second time,” Schmidt said.

Bonner said he feels Republicans would most likely take a different route come February.

“This ultimate showdown didn’t really accomplish their goals,” Bonner said. “I by no means think they will ever stop trying to defund or completely repeal Obamacare. I think that’s just the difference of ideologies, I think that’s probably going to be permanent fixture.”

When a decision needs to be made by congress, it is predicted that they won’t wait until the 11th hour again, a compromise should be agreed upon with plenty of time to spare.

“My personal opinion is, that they’ll try to work out something with a little bit more time,” Schmidt said.

Bonner said he feels the same way. He said he hopes Congress would make a more long term decision the second time around.

“I can fully see us probably within the last week or two trying to come up with another compromise. I’m optimistic that it will at least be for a year or so. I don’t think we can effectively govern going bit by bit at two months at a time,” Bonner said.

Congress is already moving on making a decision. A committee made up of Republicans from the House and Democrats from the Senate has been

set up. 

The committee will put together a compromise that should make both the House and the Senate happy.

The committee will form a bill “that would probably cut some spending maybe close some tax loopholes so more revenue comes in,” Schmidt said. “They’re going to be negotiating between now and January to find an agreement that both the House and Senate could live with when they raise the debt ceiling and pass the continuing resolution next time.”