Local editorial boards across the country are continuing to call out Republicans for risking a default on our nation’s debt, which would have very real consequences on working people. From jeopardizing up to six million American jobs, stopping Social Security payments, and blocking our soldiers from getting paid, Republicans are proving to the American people that they’re willing to destabilize our economic recovery for petty political games.

See the latest editorials from across the country below:

In Florida:

Tampa Bay Times: Blocking the debt ceiling is a reckless move by Senate Republicans | Editorial

But there is no reason to block an essential vote on raising the nation’s debt ceiling. Doing so is as reckless and self-serving as it is hypocritical. Both parties added to the debt — the Trump tax cuts, anyone? — and now they need to pay for it. Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida are particularly brazen for ignoring this shared sense of responsibility.

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Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars when their party was in control, and the current increase is needed to cover spending under previous administrations of both parties, not to pay for new spending bills working through Congress.

That’s why it’s galling to see the very politicians who’ve bellied up to the buffet now attempt to dine and dash. Rubio and Scott both voted Monday against proceeding to raise the debt limit. Where was that fiscal restraint in March 2020, when both voted to send the $2 trillion pandemic-relief CARES Act to President Donald Trump’s desk? Or back in December 2017, when Rubio voted for Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut, which then-Gov. Scott supported? 

In Minnesota:

Mankato Free-Press: Our View: Spending | Don’t play politics with debt ceiling

Once again, Congress plays a dangerous game with the raising of the U.S. debt ceiling.

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And while Republicans did not support the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden supported earlier this year that sent relief to working families, they passed a $1.5 trillion tax bill that provided generous tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy in 2017.

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Approving a high debt ceiling limit should not be a partisan issue. It’s required to help the U.S. pay obligations that come from spending supported by both parties.

In Massachusetts:

The Republican: Debt ceiling struggle not a game 

Mark your calendars. Oct. 18, which will be here before we know it, just two weeks from Monday, is the day when our nation will no longer be able to pay its bills. Though this is what anyone with a clue would consider a real problem, that hasn’t kept congressional Republicans from playing a game of chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States government. Because, well, it’s all a game, right?

Not at all, obviously, though there are plenty in the once-Grand Old Party today who operate as though it were.

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Republicans should have considered where their needless tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy four years back would lead. One imagines that they actually understand how things work, but are confident that not everyone does. So they can make a whole lot of noise and get some people to believe that what they are huffing and puffing about is based on something. Something besides pure political posturing, that is.

It isn’t.

In California:

The Press Democrat: PD Editorial: Republicans’ debt limit threats could upend the economy

Republicans in Congress are gambling with America’s fiscal health. They should join Democrats to increase the debt limit before it’s too late.

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Default would be catastrophic.

Much of the federal government would shut down, unable to pay Social Security, Medicare and other bills. The effects would ripple out from there, potentially sparking a global recession. If stock markets plunge, people’s retirement savings would take a huge hit.

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Republicans want to pin a debt limit increase on Democrats in elections next year. That small partisan gain is not worth jeopardizing the full faith and credit of the United States. The sooner Republicans end their brinkmanship, the less the harm will be.