Congressional Republicans who now refuse to pass a clean debt ceiling increase voted on three separate occasions under President [Donald] Trump to raise the debt ceiling without any preconditions or extraneous, harmful policies attached,” the lawmakers noted. “They now threaten the full faith and credit of the United States, which Treasury Secretary [Janet] Yellen warned would ‘produce an economic and financial catastrophe’ and could occur as soon as June 1.”

The letter points out that although House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “stated that ‘the greatest threat to our future is our national debt,’ he led House Republicans in passing the ‘Limit, Save, Grow Act,’ which rescinds funding for [Internal Revenue Service] enforcement against tax evasion by wealthy individuals, which would increase the deficit by nearly $500 billion over the next 10 years.”

“Republicans—who in 2017 voted unanimously to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that increased the federal deficit by $1.9 trillion over 10 years, with 83% of the law’s benefits estimated to accrue to the richest 1% by 2027—also rejected commonsense proposals offered by your negotiators to close tax loopholes and raise revenue in the current budget discussions,” the progressives added.

66 House Progressives Call On Biden to Invoke 14th Amendment to Thwart GOP ‘Hostage-Taking’