Johnson backs away from go-it-alone debt ceiling plan

By Meredith Lee Hill, Jennifer Scholtes | 01/15/2025 06:33 AM EST

The speaker acknowledged the borrowing limit could be included in government funding talks — where he’ll need Democratic votes.

Mike Johnson gestures as he speaks onstage.

House leaders are “looking at all options," Speaker Mike Johnson said at a POLITICO Live "First 100 Days" event Tuesday. Rod Lamkey Jr. for POLITICO

Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday backed away from a plan to address the approaching federal debt cliff in a party-line reconciliation package, acknowledging several major challenges that may force Republicans to deal with the borrowing limit in bipartisan talks with Democrats.

Those obstacles include fractious House conservatives and ongoing strategic disputes with the Senate. Addressing the debt limit in reconciliation is not “completely foreclosed,” Johnson said at a POLITICO Live event, but he said House leaders were “looking at all options.”

“I’m not wed to any of them,” he said.

Advertisement

Striking a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling would enrage the House’s conservative hard-liners. But President-elect Donald Trump — who has urged Johnson and other leaders to quickly address the debt cliff — appears to be softening to the idea, according to House Republicans who attended meetings with Trump at Mar-a-Lago this weekend.

GET FULL ACCESS