(WHTM) -- The federal government is weeks away from hitting its debt ceiling. After that, it can no longer borrow money, which, experts say, could lead to shutdowns, an unprecedented default, and possibly a recession.
Two Pennsylvania congressmen are in the middle of the fight and abc27's Dennis Owens spoke with both of them.
To Scott Perry, the issue is common sense. You don't agree to extend borrowing without looking at spending.
"If your child comes home and says, 'Dad, I maxed out the credit card, I need more money on here,' are you just going to say, 'Well, apparently you do need more money? I don't know what you're spending it on, but you need more.' So we're just going to raise the limit and Dennis is going to pay. I don't think that's how you treat your family. That's not how we should treat our country," Perry said.
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To the President, it's common decency.
"This is something we're supposed to do, pay our debt, which we have always done, we have never not done," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
"No, we're not just going to do it. That's irresponsible," Perry said.
Perry is the head of the conservative Freedom Caucus, which is holding up action on the debt ceiling until there are spending cuts in next year's budget
"There is no question that with a Republican-controlled House narrowly and a narrowly-controlled Senate by Democrats, we will have to have some sort of compromise on what the budget looks like for next year and the year after that," said Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia).
Boyle is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. He says future spending priorities are on the table, not paying the bills for what's already been spent is off of it.
"Those are two entirely separate questions, and they should be handled as such," Boyle said.
Perry is not wrong, the debt ceiling is through the roof. Experts say the Trump tax cuts started the spike and the pandemic exacerbated it.
"Soon as COVID started, we started spending six and a half trillion. Now the president wants to spend seven over seven trillion. COVID is over," Perry said.
But the standoff is not over. Perry and Republicans agreed to extend the debt ceiling in exchange for budget cuts. Democrats derisively call it the "Default on America Act."
"Either default on the debt or default on the country," said U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer(D-New York).
The president says he won't negotiate. House republicans say they won't budge. Both are untenable positions.
The two sides are set to meet at the White House next week, where we will see if the philosophical gap narrows at all.
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