Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
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Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer praised House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s work on the debt ceiling, telling CNBC on Friday that the final deal “doesn’t need to be perfect.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday he was confident the Trump administration and congressional leaders would reach an agreement before the U.S. defaults on its debts. Mnuchin has said it’s possible the federal government will reach the debt ceiling by early September.
“I have to say, I’ve been pretty impressed with the way Speaker Pelosi has negotiated with Secretary Mnuchin in the past week or two. She seems to want a deal as much as the president wants a deal, and she should. Good politics is good for all players,” Cramer said.
Cramer, who won a North Dakota Senate seat from Democrat Heidi Heitkamp in 2018, said Pelosi has a complicated job and that this is the type of negotiation where leaders must find common ground.
“It doesn’t need to be perfect. Politics is the art of the doable,” Cramer said.
However, as Cramer was speaking, Bloomberg News was reporting Friday that Pelosi is rejecting the White House’s most recent debt ceiling proposal.
With lawmakers set to leave for their August recess next week, both sides have been negotiating on reaching future spending limits and a longer-term agreement on continuing to allow the government the ability to borrow.
The Treasury has been using a series of “extraordinary measures” to keep the government running while the spending impasse continues.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
