REGISTER NOW Democratic senators rejected any attempt by Republicans to set conditions for increasing the federal debt limit, showcasing an escalation in partisan bickering as a two-year suspension of the ceiling approaches expiration. “Nobody is going to hold the American economy hostage, period, full stop,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said Wednesday following a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the debt-ceiling. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was also in the discussion, said, “The Republicans are trying to extract something, and say that their leverage is they will have the United States default on its legal obligations, which is fundamentally wrong.”