Senate Republicans block legislation to avert government shutdown

Republican Senators voted against a resolution that would have kept the government open and lifted the debt limit to prevent a default on the nation’s credit.

The Senate voted 49-49 after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, switched his vote so he could bring the measure up again. Mr Schumer criticised Republicans for putting the nation’s credit at risk.

“The Republican Party has solidified itself as the party of default,” Mr Schumer said on the floor of the Senate after the vote.

The measure required 60 votes to pass and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that he would not vote to increase the debt limit. Mr McConnell said Republicans would support a “clean resolution” to avert a government shutdown and allocate disaster relief for Louisiana and help Afghan refugees and support Iron Dome missile defence for Israel.

“We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit,” Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.

The United States is set to default on its credit sometime in October and money for running the United States government will run out at the end of the month. The debt limit is for spending the United States has already incurred.

The downvote comes the same week that House Democrats plan to pass a bipartisan infrastructure that already cleared the Senate and President Joe Biden’s proposed massive social welfare agenda that would include expanding Medicare coverage to include vision, hearing and dental care, tuition-free community college, child care, paid family leave and home and community-based care for elderly people and people with disabilities.

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