(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a charter member of “The Squad,” decried Republicans for being “godless” for pushing spending cuts.
The proclamation came during a speech on the House floor in the midst of debates concerning the nation’s debt ceiling, the Daily Caller reported.
“The Republicans continue to govern in a way that is clueless, callous and with great contempt, and I would say godless, because faith without works is dead,” said Pressley.
Pressley made her minute-long speech next to a sign that read “House Republicans are forcing a default on our debt.”
However, neither she nor any other Democrats voted in favor of the bill passed by the House that would have authorized an increase to the debt ceiling on the condition that the Biden administration rein in its profligate spending.
GOP lawmakers proposed spending cuts to accompany the raising the limit of the national debt. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats insist that the ceiling increase should have no other conditions attached.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden discussed the debt ceiling on Monday, but failed to reach a consensus.
Some left-wing representatives called for Biden to increase the ceiling under the 14th Amendment, thereby dodging the need for Congress to deliberate.
“Republicans want us to make an impossible choice: Extreme drastic cuts to life-saving programs or a catastrophic default on our debt, both of which would impact our most vulnerable,” Pressley said.
The House passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which increases the debt ceiling and repeals some parts of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The new act also requires Congress to approve multimillion-dollar changes and adjustments to federally funded welfare programs.
“Stop playing with people’s lives. This is not a game. Pass a clean debt ceiling increase,” Pressley said.
Several Democratic members of Congress attempted to stoke the flames of controversy surrounding the debt ceiling and spread disinformation to pin the blame on Republicans even as they have made clear they will refuse to negotiate on it.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., claimed there would be “backlash from our entire House Democratic Caucus… also in the streets,” if Biden made the deal with McCarthy, cutting spending in order to raise the debt ceiling.
Rep. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y., one of the second-generation “Squad” members, who has sought to make a name for himself with a series of bombastic confrontations with GOP lawmakers, decreed that compromise of any kind was off the table, The Hill reported.
“I mean, we don’t negotiate with terrorists globally,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju on Thursday. “Why are we gonna negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party?”
