Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on Thursday that she supports President-elect Donald Trump's call to abolish the debt ceiling.
"I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress should terminate the debt limit and never again govern by hostage taking," Warren wrote on social platform X.
As congressional lawmakers scramble to come up with a stopgap funding bill and a partial government shutdown hangs in the balance, Trump said Thursday that the "smartest thing" they could do is get rid of the debt ceiling.
"The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge," Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News on Thursday. "It doesn't mean anything, except psychologically."
On Wednesday, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance released a joint statement demanding that Congress raise the debt limit while at the same time panning the continuing resolution to fund the government that was promoted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., before being scrapped amid GOP opposition.
"Increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch," the joint statement said. "If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let's have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want."
The debt ceiling is a cap on the total amount of money the federal government can borrow to pay its bills. Congress last raised the debt limit in June 2023, suspending it through Jan. 1, 2025.
"The only way" House Democrats should "vote to raise the debt ceiling under Trump is if we have a permanent elimination" of it or a reform to nullify it, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the ranking member of the Budget Committee, told NBC.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters Wednesday night that the president-elect's initial demand that the continuing resolution be used to raise the debt ceiling came as "a surprise" to her.
"I was surprised that [Trump] wants to move the debt limit vote up to this year," Collins said, according to The Hill. "I don't know his rationale."
The deadline to pass a stopgap funding bill and avert a partial government shutdown is 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday.