WASHINGTON, May 18 – As Congressional Republicans demand major cuts that would cause incalculable damage to the lives of working Americans, 11 Senate Democrats sent a letter on Thursday to President Joe Biden urging his administration to prepare to invoke the 14th Amendment to avoid a catastrophic debt default. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led the letter and were joined by their colleagues Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)

“Republicans’ unwillingness to consider one penny in new revenue from the wealthy and large corporations, along with their diminishment of the disastrous consequences of default have made it seemingly impossible to enact a bipartisan budget deal at this time,” the senators wrote. “We write to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states: ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States…shall not be questioned.’”

To read the letter, see here.