The US Chamber of Commerce is strongly pushing back against efforts from Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other progressives to urge the White House to use the 14th Amendment to avoid a disastrous default.
The Chamber, a pro-business trade group that often supports Republicans, sent President Joe Biden a letter on Friday warning of economic, financial and legal turmoil should the administration attempt to take this controversial route to address the debt ceiling.
“It is the Chamber’s view that attempting to invoke so-called ‘powers’ under the 14th Amendment would be as economically calamitous as a default by a failure to lift the debt limit in a timely manner,” Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s chief policy officer and a former senior aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, wrote in the letter.
Bradley argued that invoking the 14th Amendment would send Treasury rates spiking, lifting the cost of borrowing for families and businesses.
“The legal uncertainty around this debt combined with increased interest costs would impose significant and long-term costs on the economy similar to default,” Bradley wrote. “Simply put, there is no alternative to reaching a bipartisan agreement to raise the statutory debt limit.”
The Chamber cited a Thursday letter sent by Sanders, Warren and nine other Senate Democrats urging Biden to prepare to invoke the 14th Amendment.
