AFT Leads Letter with 57 Unions and Organizations, Including IFPTE, Urging Congress to "Raise the Debt Limit Without Hesitation or Precondition"
On Friday, Feb 17, the print edition of Politico, a print and online newspaper covering Congressional and national politics, included an open letter signed by the American Federation of Teachers and dozens of unions, nonprofit organizations, and community groups, including IFPTE, urging Congressional leadership to raise the national debt ceiling.
While Congress has raised the national debt limit 78 times since 1960 and doing so has been politically uncontroversial, some Members of Congress have threatened to leverage a vote on the debt limit to cut Social Security, Medicare, and other essential government programs that Americans count on. Failure to raise the debt limit will have dire consequences for the U.S. economy and the global economy, consequences that are easily avoidable and entirely unnecessary. IFPTE will continue to request Congress pass a clean debt ceiling increase and desist from political brinksmanship that will have a lasting impact on the creditworthiness of the United States.
Read the open letter to Congressional Leadership:
Dear Congressional Leadership
The undersigned organizations—representing millions of Americans—strongly urge you to raise the debt limit without hesitation or precondition. Risking a first-time default would be catastrophic for our economy and for families across the nation.
Raising the debt limit is not a new or radical idea. It simply allows the government to meet previous obligations made by congressional majorities and presidents of both parties. It ensures that the sanctity of our fiscal word is never questioned or compromised. That is why Congress has worked in a bipartisan manner to raise the debt limit with no strings attached, including three times under the Trump administration.
Preserving the trust that the U.S. government will pay its bills on time and in full is critical to protecting our economy and the millions of livelihoods that depend on this stability. If the government defaults or cannot pay its bills, families and businesses may not be able to pay their own bills. It would also spike interest rates on everything from cars to mortgages to credit cards to student loans, resulting in thousands of dollars in unexpected costs for average Americans. Finally, failure to pay our bills on time would have devastating effects on Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and veteran benefits, severely disrupting beneficiaries’ ability to pay for healthcare, food, rent, utilities or other necessary expenses.
Again, we urge you to pass a clean bill raising the debt limit soon and avoid unnecessarily jeopardizing our economy and threatening the financial health of American families.
Download a PDF of the letter to Congress urging the raising of the debt ceiling here.