McConnell says GOP won't give Democrats votes to raise debt limit given their partisan budget plans

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott said Wednesday that the Senate GOP won't give Democrats votes to raise the debt limit, given their partisan budget plans with a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

House Democrats passed a bill suspending the debt limit until December 2022 which would be after the midterm elections take place.

Scott said increasing the debt limit will cover the spending President Biden and the Democrats authorized with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act in March.

"They want to suspend it because they want to spend all this money without any accountability to tell the American public that, by the way, your debt is going up. Your taxes are going up and you're going to see significantly more inflation," Scott said during a news conference. "This is a decision Democrats are going to make. They have every vote they need to do this on their own."

Scott pointed out that the interest on the national debt is about $380 billion, representing roughly 10% of the government's revenue from tax collection. He said the "Democrats have no interest" in working with Republicans to address spending reductions, rising inflation or the labor shortage across many industries.