House Republican says there won’t be a default if debt bill fails

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) on Tuesday waved off concerns that there would be a default if Congress fails to pass the current proposal to raise the debt ceiling.

“There’s no default. That’s a silly, scary narrative,” Good said in an interview on NewsNation’s The Hill, adding, “It only takes $70 billion a month to pay the interest on the nation’s debt, which of course, that’s a true default when you can’t pay your interest on your debt, you can’t meet your obligation.”

“We’ve got about $400 billion a month coming into the Treasury,” he continued. “The problem is we’re spending $500 billion a month, and this deal continues that trajectory, doesn’t do anything to address it.”

Good is one of at least 29 House Republicans who have said they will not support the deal struck by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden to raise the debt limit.

“So no, there’s not going to be some kind of catastrophic default if we don’t pass this bill,” the Virginia Republican added. “It just would complicate things, make it problematic that we can’t continue to borrow and spend $100 billion a month.”

However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the U.S. will run out of money if lawmakers do not agree to raise the debt ceiling by June 5, something economists have predicted could be disastrous for the economy.

Yellen has also pushed back on the concept of prioritizing interest payments over other obligations, calling that “default by another name.”

“We should not think that prioritization is a solution to the debt ceiling issue,” Yellen told CBS News back in March. “Prioritization is simply not paying all of the government’s bills when they come due.”

She added that default would impact the government’s ability to pay benefits, cause interest rates to increase and potentially result in a downgrade in the nation’s credit.

Both Fitch Ratings and DBRS Morningstar, two credit ratings agencies, have already warned that the nation’s credit rating is at risk for a potential downgrade.

“If we don’t do that and think that there’s some shortcut around it that will avoid economic chaos, we’re kidding ourselves because not paying the government’s bills will produce economic and financial collapse,” she said at the time.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.