House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared to shut down Republicans’ push to raise the debt ceiling in a Thursday morning social media post.
“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” he posted on his Bluesky account.
Jeffries’ statement — pointedly not posted on Elon Musk’s X — comes as Republicans are floating the idea for a new stopgap measure to fund the government that would include disaster aid and raising the debt ceiling.
And behind closed doors, leaders projected unity and urged the caucus to hold the line.
In a meeting with the entire Democratic Caucus Thursday morning, Jeffries quoted President John F. Kennedy, telling members: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate,” according to two people familiar with the remarks, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal party dynamics.
He also asked his caucus who his negotiating partner would be, and asked if he should be calling Musk.
“This caucus has shown ’grit and grace’ and that’s exactly what we’ll need going into this,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) told attendees, according to one of the people familiar.
With the clock ticking down towards a government shutdown, the House minority isn’t showing any signs of bailing out their GOP counterparts. Republicans torpedoed a bipartisan deal to fund the government through March and provide billions in disaster and farm relief — along with a slew of other lawmaker priorities — after Musk and President-elect Donald Trump signaled their opposition.
Further complicating the matter, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said they wanted to inject the debt ceiling into the debate, and it’s not clear whether a new debt ceiling agreement could be negotiated before the Friday shutdown deadline.
“I wish Speaker Johnson would grow a fucking spine, because it’s pathetic,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Rules Committee Democrat.
But some Democrats signaled they might back a new stopgap funding plan to keep the government open, depending on the details.
“Democrats will vote to keep the government open, and if it means a clean CR, I think that’s what we’ll do,” said Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.).