Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer wouldn’t budge Monday from his stance that Democrats will not negotiate spending cuts with House Republicans in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling that’s set to be breached this summer.
The New York Democrat, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill just hours after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy re-upped demands that both sides meet at the negotiating table, accused Republicans of “theater” and “hostage-taking” that’s threatening the economy.
“Speaker McCarthy continues to bumble our country towards a catastrophic default, which would cause the economy to crash, cause monumental job loss and drastically raise costs to the American people,” Mr. Schumer said. “I’ll be blunt: if Speaker McCarthy continues in this direction, we are headed to default.”
Mr. Schumer said the onus is on Mr. McCarthy to propose a detailed budget with desired cuts before meeting with him and President Biden at the White House to hash out a debt-ceiling deal.
“If he comes there without a plan, what are we going to talk about, the furniture?” Mr. Schumer said. “The solution here is straightforward: Republicans should work with Democrats in good faith to avoid default together, just as we did under President Trump, just as what President Reagan talked about. No blackmail. No brinkmanship. No default.”
Seeking to quell Wall Street’s concerns about defaulting in a speech at the New York Stock Exchange earlier that day, Mr. McCarthy accused Mr. Biden of turning a blind eye to the fiscal reality of more than $31 trillion in national debt.
SEE ALSO: White House invokes Reagan, Trump to slam McCarthy’s debt-ceiling plan
He said House Republicans in the coming weeks will pass legislation to raise the debt limit for one year, roll back non-defense domestic spending to 2022 levels, cap annual budget growth at 1% over the next decade and impose new work requirements for social welfare programs.
“Defaulting on our debt is not an option,” the California Republican said. “A no-strings-attached debt limit increase will not pass. But since the president continues to hide, House Republicans will take action.”
The monthslong refusal by either party to blink has moderates in both camps, particularly Democrats, growing increasingly uneasy about waiting until the 11th hour to start negotiating. The Treasury Department has already begun extraordinary accounting measures that will likely last until mid-July, when Secretary Janet Yellen has said Congress will either need to raise the nation’s borrowing limit or risk default.
Mr. McCarthy has so far rebuffed Democrats’ calls to first coalesce his narrow majority around a budget proposal, but his broad economic pitch was quickly used by the White House as ammunition to suggest the speaker was out of step with history.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates invoked former Republican Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan as examples of how Democrats worked with Republicans in the past to raise clean debt limits.
“The cuts belong in a discussion about the budget, not as a precondition for avoiding default,” Mr. Schumer said. “To date, after countless requests, Speaker McCarthy has yet to produce any concrete plan as to the cuts he would make.”
SEE ALSO: McCarthy vows House GOP will pass debt ceiling bill in ‘coming weeks’
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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