Biden says debt limit must be raised because of ‘reckless’ policies under Trump – live

In his address today on the need to raise the debt limit, Joe Biden lambasted the Republicans and their use of the filibuster to stymie the Democrats.

“So let’s be clear, not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, they’re threatening to use their power to prevent us from doing our job: saving the economy from a catastrophic event,” Biden said. “I think quite frankly it’s hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful.”

Though Biden publicly has yet to commit to ending the filibuster, as many in his party have been asking him to do, he went hard at the Republicans, telling them to stop with the filibuster and allow Democrats to move forward in raising the debt ceiling.

“We’re not expecting Republicans to do their part,” Biden said. “They made that clear from the beginning. We tried asking, to no avail. We’re just asking them to not use procedural tricks to block us from doing the job that they won’t do. A meteor is headed to crash into our economy. Democrats are willing to do all the work in stopping it. Republicans just have to let us do our job. Just get out of the way. If you don’t want to help save the country, just get out of the way so you don’t destroy it.”

Joe Biden says we must raise the debt limit in part because of the “reckless tax and spending policies under the previous Trump administration.”

“In four years, they incurred almost $8tn in additional debt, in bills we have to now pay off,” Biden said. “That’s more than a quarter of the entire debt incurred, now outstanding, in more than 200 years. Republicans in Congress raised the debt three times when Donald Trump was president, and each time with Democrat support. Now they won’t raise it.”

Joe Biden has taken the podium to speak about the debt ceiling and he’s coming in hot: “The United States is a nation that pays its bills and always has.”

Andrew Yang announced today that he was leaving the Democratic party to register as an independent.

Yang, who attracted a staunch following after his 2020 presidential run on a platform that celebrated math, nerdiness and a universal basic income, posted on his website that despite having been registered as a Democrat since 1995, he was “confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing”.

“Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way,” he wrote. “

“My goal is to do as much as I can to advance our society,” Yang wrote. “There are phenomenal public servants doing great work every day – but our system is stuck. It is stuck in part because polarization is getting worse than ever.

“Many of the people I know are doing all of the good they can – but their impact is constrained. Now that I’m not a member of one party or another, I feel like I can be even more honest about both the system and the people in it.”

Yang lost the race for mayor of New York earlier this year as a Democrat.

Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis has been diagnosed with breast cancer, her husband, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced.

“As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will not only have my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across the state,” Ron DeSantis said in a statement.

Confused about why we’re still talking about the debt ceiling? Here’s a good breakdown about what’s going on and why you should care – and the role that the filibuster is playing in all this.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer just put out a letter to his colleagues reiterating that “we must get a bill to the President’s desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week.”

“We do not have the luxury to wait until October 18th,” Schumer wrote.

He said the refusal of the Republicans to extend the country’s debt limit and to “pay for the spending and debts incurred as a result of the bipartisan covid relief legislation passed during the Trump administration” is “a stark reminder of how absurd and partisan Republicans have made the process for raising the debit limit.”

Howdy, live blog readers.

Joe Biden heads back to Washington this morning from Wilmington with plans to deliver remarks in a few hours on the debt ceiling.

To recap: last week was yet another tense game of chicken in the realm of American politics. The US government avoided a partial federal shutdown when the Senate and the House of Representatives passed a bill to keep the government funded through 3 December – but in passing the bill, Democrats were forced to remove language that would have raised the debt ceiling.

There’s also the small matter of Biden’s domestic spending agenda, of course, as moderates and progressives in the Democratic party continue their tussle over price tags and policy priorities. The infrastructure bill, which is bipartisan, and the domestic spending proposals, which are not, are in question.

Much more to follow, of course, and more here: