WASHINGTON — Fights over increasing the nation's borrowing authority have been contentious in Congress, yet follow a familiar pattern: Time and again, lawmakers found a way to step back from the brink before markets began to panic and the nation risked a dangerous default on its debt.
But this year's fight has a different feel, some lawmakers say.
A new Republican majority in the House is itching for a spending showdown, and determined not to yield. They blame what they view as excessive federal spending for higher food and gasoline prices and the growing national debt.
Led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they ruled out passing a "clean" debt ceiling increase even as the White House insists such legislation be passed without conditions. It's an impasse that shows no signs of easing ahead of this summer's deadline for action.
"Very worried. Very worried," was how Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., a close McCarthy ally, described his outlook. "And frankly, I don't see how we get there at this point. There's no process set up, there's no dialogue, there's no discussion."
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters March 24 at the Capitol in Washington.
The political conditions are comparable to 2011, when a new Republican majority swept into power after a resounding election win and was determined to confront a Democratic White House and extract major spending cuts in return for a debt limit increase.
To resolve that stalemate, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act. The bill temporarily allowed borrowing to resume, set new spending limits and created a bipartisan "supercommittee" to recommend at least $1.2 trillion more in deficit reduction over 10 years.
Republicans and Democrats on the panel failed to compromise, however, triggering automatic reductions in spending.
But some damage was done. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded U.S. debt for the first time that year because it lacked confidence political leaders would make the choices needed to avert a long-term fiscal crisis.
In 2013, Obama took a different tack. He made clear early on there would be no negotiations on must-pass legislation to prevent a U.S. default, and he never wavered.
A partial government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, swiftly coincided with the prospects of a default. On Oct. 16, Congress passed legislation to end the twin threats and GOP lawmakers who demanded to roll back Obama's signature health care law got nothing for their efforts.
"We fought the good fight. We just didn't win," conceded then-House Speaker John Boehner.
Republicans say they are determined that Biden, who was Obama's vice president during both of those debt ceiling battles, will have to follow the path set in 2011 — not the one set in 2013.
"President Biden is not President Obama, right?" said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the leader of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. "His poll numbers are in the tank and they're going to keep going down."
The result, Perry said, is that Biden doesn't have the political standing to ignore House Republicans.
"Look, there's gonna be shrapnel all around, right," Perry said. "Everybody might take some wounds from it, but he's not walking out of this thing unscathed."
After a tumultuous start to the new Congress in which Republicans struggled to elect a speaker, they are taking great pains to show unity. Moderates and conservatives in the House are adamant: Biden must engage.
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia said what concerns him most is that some Republicans believe the damage from a federal default is manageable, rather than to be avoided at all costs.
"Some of these people are substituting belief for empirical evidence and don't accept the warnings of economists, Wall Street, Janet Yellen," Connolly said.
Breaching the debt ceiling is different than a federal government shutdown. The government can continue to operate once the Treasury has exhausted its cash-on-hand. But outgoing payments would be limited to incoming revenue. Not all payments could be made on time and in full. Many fear such an event would shake the foundations of the global financial system.
Some lawmakers don't believe the consequences would be that devastating. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., said breaching the debt limit without an agreement to increase it would force "prioritization of our spending."
"I'm not afraid of that, quite frankly," Good said.
In the Senate, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is encouraging negotiations. "I think Kevin McCarthy has been most reasonable," he said.
GOP leadership in the Senate has also voiced support for McCarthy's efforts. But some Senate Republicans say spending fights should be relegated to the annual spending bills that Congress passes to fund government agencies. An increase in the debt limit doesn't authorize new federal spending — it only allows borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, speaks during a March 7 news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
"Look, if we have disagreements on spending, and if we have to close government to resolve things, so be it, but threatening a collapse of the U.S. and world economy without raising the debt ceiling is, in my opinion, a weapon that is too severe," said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
There have been roughly 80 deals to raise or suspend the borrowing cap since the 1960s. Romney noted that the debt ceiling was extended, with the help of Democrats, multiple times during Donald Trump's presidency.
"Of course, last time you had President Trump as the individual pushing to raise the debt ceiling, but somehow when we have a Democratic president, we find religion," Romney said.
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