'Impassioned' Pelosi reportedly shamed Democrats who might break from House debt ceiling vote

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 29 September 2021

The House's Wednesday vote on a bill that would suspend the federal debt ceiling through December 2022 is no laughing matter for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is determined to make sure moderate Democrats don't break ranks with their colleagues.

One moderate lawmaker who was in the room during a Democratic whip team meaning told The Hill that "I've never seen Pelosi more impassioned as she demanded unity on the debt ceiling point." Essentially, the lawmaker said, the speaker was "shaming those who make it down."

The reason a few centrists are opposed to the bill is that it's doomed in the Senate, where Republicans will almost certainly block it. So, a small contingent of House Democrats considers Wednesday's effort to be nothing more than a show vote, The Hill reports. Pelosi's counterargument is that "we cannot predicate our actions in the House on what could happen in the Senate." She told reporters Wednesday morning that she has "no patience for people not voting on this." Read more at The Hill.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.