In Cayuga County, Schumer says bipartisan solution needed to avoid default [The Citizen, Auburn, N.Y.]

May 25—AURELIUS — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is hopeful for a resolution to the ongoing debt ceiling standoff between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans.

During his visit to Cayuga County on Wednesday, Schumer warned of default — the likely outcome if Congress does not raise the debt limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has informed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that her department will not be able to pay the government's bills unless Congress raises or suspends the debt ceiling by early June.

"Default would be devastating ... It would raise the cost of everything, so we have to avoid default," Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "Right now, there are bipartisan talks between the speaker and the president and we must do everything we can. Default would be the worst alternative."

The political showdown pits Biden and Democrats, who want a clean debt limit hike, against congressional Republicans calling for significant government spending cuts as part of any debt ceiling increase.

House Republicans passed a bill in April that paired the debt limit increase with $4.8 trillion in spending cuts over a 10-year period. The GOP plan also slashes green energy tax credits, cuts funding for the Internal Revenue Service to hire more employees, adds work requirements for Medicaid recipients and expands work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Schumer panned that legislation, saying in April that it would be a "gut punch" to upstate New York. He noted that the average household would lose nearly $400 in heating assistance and more than 2 million New Yorkers would lose Medicaid coverage because of the proposed work requirements.

Another area of concern for Schumer is that the bill threatens funding to support domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing, including Micron's planned $100 billion investment to build a fab in central New York.

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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