Minneapolis Review

WASHINGTON—Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) released the following statement after voting to avoid default.

"We cannot default on our debt. We cannot, for the first time in history, send millions of people into poverty, plunge Minnesota and the world into a recession, and risk basic necessities for the people we represent. 

"This bill is far from perfect, but I know that if we fail to act and America fails to pay its bills, my constituents would be far worse off. 

"But this is a sad day for our democracy. Instead of paying the bills we already accrued, Republicans took the entire global economy hostage and threatened to default on America’s bills.

"I have been clear from the beginning: I support a clean debt ceiling bill. That’s why I pushed for a clean debt ceiling bill during the lame duck session, supported a discharge petition to put one on the floor, and supported the President using his 14th amendment authority to raise it unilaterally.

"We are in this place because of Speaker Kevin McCarthy threatening default. If not for Kevin McCarthy threatening default we could have had a clean debt ceiling hike. 

"President Biden deserves credit for decreasing the ransom these hostage-takers demanded and for staving off even worse cuts for Minnesotans, but this is no way to legislate in a democracy. Taking what used to be a routine procedural bill hostage in exchange for completely unrelated and extremely harmful policy concessions is antithetical to the spirit of our republic, and the way Congress was intended to function. It will eventually result in catastrophe. Moving forward, we must take the threat of default off the table. That means abolishing the debt ceiling, and it means the President exercising his constitutional authority to ensure that the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned."

Original source can be found here.