Dems say GOP debt bill would ‘supercharge’ fentanyl crisis: report

The Republican debt ceiling bill would result in the firing of more than 2,000 Border Patrol agents and would “supercharge” the fentanyl crisis, Democrats say, according to a newly obtained memo obtained by Politico.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates in the memo assailed the GOP-proposed bill he said calls for cuts to the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI and Customs and Border Protection, and additional cuts to health care spending that would make it more difficult to get treatment for addiction, Politico reports.

The attempt to tie the proposed spending cuts in the Republican debt ceiling bill to the fentanyl crisis comes on the eve of President Joe Biden’s scheduled meeting with party leaders from both chambers including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Politico’s Nancy Vu writes “…it indicates that the Biden team isn't letting up on its insistence that any debt ceiling increase be decoupled from potential federal spending cuts.”

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Republicans appear to be standing their ground ahead of possible negotiations over the debt ceiling limit.

Vu writes that “just this past weekend, 43 Senate Republicans led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent a letter to Schumer demonstrating their filibuster-strength level of support for spending cuts and structural budget reform as a starting point for negotiations on the debt ceiling.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week notified Congress that the U.S. could default on its debt as soon as June 1 if the government fails to increase its debt limit.

Yellen in a letter to House and Senate leaders urged lawmakers to “to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible” to increase the limit on its legal borrowing authority.

“We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States,” Yellen’s letter said.