Mitch McConnell Pushing Filibuster Carveout for Debt Ceiling to Protect His 'Ego'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) efforts to fast-track the debt ceiling is a tactic to protect his own “ego,” a former senior GOP aide told Breitbart News.

McConnell has pushed to fast-track the adoption of legislation to raise the debt ceiling. His proposal would allow the Senate to consider the debt ceiling legislation with only a 51-vote majority or to allow it to pass with mainly Democrat votes.

The tentative deal between McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would suspend the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rules for one month to consider the debt ceiling provision.

This would allow McConnell to have a modest victory as Democrats have successfully beaten back McConnell’s strategy to force Democrats to raise the debt ceiling through reconciliation or through the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act.

This serves as a “stunning turnaround” for McConnell, who made “blanket opposition” to raising the debt ceiling central to his political strategy this summer.

Essentially, this proposal would create a temporary filibuster carveout to allow for McConnell and Schumer to share a victory.

A former senior GOP aide told Breitbart News that this filibuster carveout would protect McConnell’s “ego” after losing to Schumer on the debt ceiling this year.

Conservative activist organizations have raised hell over Congress’s inability to cut spending while Americans continue to grapple with soaring inflation.

Adam Brandon, the president of FreedomWorks, said in a statement Tuesday:

The last thing the American people need this Christmas is another debt limit increase. Our national debt will soon hit $30 trillion, and congressional leaders continue to lack the courage to address this national security threat.

FreedomWorks activists are fed up with the inaction from Washington to cut spending. Rest assured that FreedomWorks will key vote any legislation that continues to harm our nation’s budget and economic well-being.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a statement that any measure to lower the vote threshold to raise the debt ceiling would damage “both our fiscal security and the Senate filibuster.”

Roberts explained:

The national debt is one of the top threats to our security, and it remains a tool for the elites of Washington, D.C., to bankrupt the American people and fund an administrative state increasingly wielding power against the citizenry. Meanwhile, the filibuster is a cornerstone of the Senate that prevents one side from seizing power and imposing their rule on the nation. Trading the filibuster for a higher national debt is an idea so bad that it could only happen in Washington.

Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, said:

Under no circumstances should members of Congress vote for a package that combines the NDAA and any vote regarding the debt ceiling. Americans deserve better.

The Club for Growth said that Sens. McConnell, John Cornyn (R-TX), and Roy Blunt (R-MO) “support President Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer using a BLANK CHECK to accommodate trillions of dollars of deficit spending to finance Biden’s socialist agenda.”

The Club added, “In the meantime, this unprecedented action effectively allows Nancy Pelosi to gut the legislative filibuster.”

In the meantime, this unprecedented action effectively allows Nancy Pelosi to gut the legislative filibuster. 2/2

— Club for Growth (@club4growth) December 7, 2021

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

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