DOGE’s Treasury Access Could Let GOP Off The Debt Limit Hook

Some Republicans have long urged Treasury to choose which bills to pay when the debt ceiling gets close to being breached. Elon Musk’s DOGE could let them do it.

The news that workers with Elon Musk’s government efficiency group had obtained access to the Treasury Department’s closely-guarded payments system raised worries the government could stop paying for items the Trump administration dislikes.

But it also raised another possibility that has at least one senior Democratic senator anxious: that the White House could be preparing a workaround for raising the debt limit later this year, depriving Democrats of political leverage and putting the U.S.’ creditworthiness on the line.

“It certainly sounds to me like there’s a possibility of that going on. But that’s what we’re trying to find [out],” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, told HuffPost.

A small group of Republicans have long argued that there is an alternative to simply raising the debt ceiling: In their scenario, the Treasury would simply stop borrowing money to refinance existing debt and pay off the government’s bills, and instead “prioritize” its payments. Things like payments on existing debt would be at the top of the list and other items could be paid in descending order of importance, using daily cash receipts brought in.

Most economists say even a credible chance that the U.S. would breach the limit on its federal debt — much less actually doing so — would cause global economic calamity. And Treasury officials in the past have said such an approach is unworkable, not to mention dangerous, because it could tarnish the U.S.’ sterling creditworthiness. Democrats have said prioritization is simply default by another name, because some government obligations would not be paid on time.