Kevin McCarthy hits Biden for not negotiating with GOP on debt limit

Speaker does not indicate Republicans will block debt limit increase

The White House may be on track for a political victory over the debt limit as the GOP Speaker of the House looks at least somewhat unwilling to threaten America’s credit by blocking an increase to the debt limit.

But that didn’t stop Kevin McCarthy from hammering President Joe Biden on the issue of not negotiating with Republicans over spending decreases at all, as the White House has maintained that the president wants to see the GOP’s budget proposal in full before any such talks begin.

Mr McCarthy spoke Monday morning at the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange, before sitting down for a Q&A with the NYSE’s president.

“I want to talk to you about the debate that is not happening in Washington, but should be happening over our national debt,” he told his audience.

“Inflation is made in Washington. Yet rather than working with Republicans to find a reasonable agreement to tame inflation, provide certainty to the economy, President Biden is demanding Congress make room for new debt without a single, sensible change to how government spends your hard-earned money,” he continued. “Not one. Not one change.”

“My question to you today is: Does that sound responsible?” Mr McCarthy questioned.

The White House has repeatedly demanded that Republicans put forth a public plan detailing any spending cuts they would have the president implement in exchange for their votes on the quick passage of a bill to increase America’s debt limit, thereby averting the risk that the federal government would default on its loans. Mr Biden in particular has repeatedly accused the GOP as a whole of seeking to cut social welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare, a plan that has been suggested by a number of conservatives in Washington over the years but has been rejected by some others in the party.

Mr McCarthy on Monday promised that his party’s plan was coming, while offering no specifics on what cuts it would entail.

The issue has put Republicans on the defensive for months as they loudly protest that they seek no such cuts even as some of their own colleagues have put forward proposals that would put the programs’ futures into question.

“Congress has a constitutional obligation to address the debt limit – as they did three times in the previous administration without conditions. Business leaders and economists have warned that the threat of a default risks the livelihoods of American small businesses, retirees, and working families and would hand a massive win to China – and recent events underscore the need for Congress to address the debt limit as soon as possible. It’s time for Republicans to stop playing games, pass a clean debt ceiling bill, and quit threatening our economic recovery,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a late March statement.

She then added: “The President welcomes a separate conversation about our nation’s fiscal future. Earlier this month, he released a budget that cuts the deficit by nearly $3 trillion while lowering costs for families and investing in America. Speaker McCarthy and his extreme MAGA caucus have refused to put out a budget. All we’ve heard from them is a list of devastating cuts to law enforcement and border security and proposals to take health care away from Americans and raise health care and child care costs. All to pay for their tax giveaway to the super-wealthy and corporations. In fact, their proposals don’t reduce the deficit at all.”

The exact date on which America will come up against the debt limit is not known, further adding to the uncertainty in Washington surrounding the issue. The Congressional Budget Office’s projection places the deadline somewhere between July and September.

On Monday, Mr McCarthy indicated that he would not force the federal government into default in order to score a political victory against the Biden administration.

Using an example, he said revealingly: “If you gave a child a credit card, and they kept maxing it out to the limit, would just blindly raise the limit? Of course not, no parent would do that. You’d be responsible for paying the bill, but you’d sit down, you’d work with them, to figure out how they’d change their spending habits, so it would never happen again. That exact same thing is true for our national debt.”