House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vowed Monday that while President Biden “continues to hide, House Republicans will take action” on a plan meant to limit federal borrowing to one year and reduce government spending.
“Let me be clear: A no-strings-attached debt limit increase will not pass,” McCarthy, 58, said in a speech at the New York Stock Exchange meant to evoke former President Ronald Reagan’s visit to the trading floor nearly 40 years ago.
Monday’s remarks sought to highlight what McCarthy called President Biden’s “irresponsible” economic policy after the speaker last month accused the commander-in-chief of being “missing in action” from debt ceiling talks.
“Here’s our plan,” McCarthy said. “In the coming weeks the House will vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling into the next year, save taxpayers trillions of dollars, make us less dependent upon China, curb our high inflation — all without touching Social Security and Medicare.”
The speaker in March suggested cutting non-defense spending back to pre-inflationary levels and introducing more work requirements for some welfare programs.
Biden rolled out a $6.9 trillion budget proposal the same month, which would have increased the national debt to $51 trillion over the next decade.
In January, the federal government exceeded its roughly $31 trillion debt limit, halting its ability to borrow funds for programs like Social Security and Medicare. Congress last approved a debt ceiling increase in December 2021.
Also in January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the federal borrowing limit will need to be increased by June of this year to prevent a default on America’s national debt.
“Without exaggeration, American debt is a ticking time bomb that will detonate unless we take serious, responsible action,” McCarthy said Monday. “Yet how has President Biden reacted to this issue? He has done nothing.”
McCarthy said Biden’s unwillingness to negotiate as commander-in-chief differs greatly from his past openness to fiscal reform as a US senator and even while Barack Obama’s vice president.
“When he was Senator Joe Biden, he voted for spending reforms attached to debt limit increases four times: in 1985, in 1987, in 1993 and in 1997,” he noted, adding that Biden also led spending talks with House Republicans in 2011.
Both the White House and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) compared McCarthy’s push for spending cuts to “hostage-taking.”
“There is one responsible solution to the debt limit: addressing it promptly, without brinksmanship or hostage-taking — as Republicans did three times in the last administration and as Presidents Trump and Reagan argued for in office,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“A speech is not a plan,” said Christie Stephenson, a spokeswoman for Jeffries’ office. “Extreme MAGA Republicans continue to treat the full faith and credit of the United States as a hostage situation while their so-called budget proposal remains in the witness protection program.”
𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀, 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 & 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘆: nypost.com
𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗠𝗖𝗔,
𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝘁 dmca@enspirers.com
