House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Monday that Republicans would soon take up legislation to raise the federal debt limit and curtail spending.
Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, made the announcement during a speech before the New York Stock Exchange. The speaker said the House was readying to move legislation on the topic, despite President Biden’s refusal to negotiate on spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
“A no-strings-attached debt limit increase will not pass, but since the president continues to hide, House Republicans will take action,” Mr. McCarthy said.
The speaker accused the president of ignoring fiscal reality, noting the more than $32 trillion national debt.
House Republicans are proposing to raise the debt limit until spring 2024 in exchange for capping non-defense spending and limiting future budget growth to 1% over the next decade. They further want to rescind Mr. Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, new green energy tax credits and $90.5 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief.
GOP lawmakers are also pushing to institute work requirements for social welfare programs, including Medicare and food stamps.
Beyond cutting spending and restructuring the social safety net, GOP lawmakers want to overhaul the nation’s energy-permitting laws and pass legislation requiring congressional approval for new regulations with an economic impact of more than $100 million.
“I have full confidence that if we limit our federal spending, if we save taxpayer money, [and] if we grow our economy,” Mr. McCarthy said. “We will end the dependence on China. We will curb inflation and we will protect Social Security and Medicare for the next generation.”
Republicans are eyeing a quick timeline to pass the debt limit proposal. The House is set to be in session until April 29, when lawmakers adjourn for a week-long recess.
Aides to the GOP leadership told The Washington Times that passing the debt limit legislation by the end of the month would “put the ball in the White House’s court.”
Mr. McCarthy’s remarks came two days after Congress blew through the April 15 deadline by which lawmakers were required to pass legislation beginning the budget process.
While the legislation serves as little more than an aspirational blueprint to guide congressional committees on spending, this year marks the 20th in a row that lawmakers have ignored the deadline.
“Budgeting is a fundamental part of governing, and the fact that Congress has not taken this role seriously shows just how broken our budget process has become,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “We are already over halfway through the current fiscal year, and there’s been little progress on negotiating funding for 2024.”
Mr. McCarthy said Monday that House Republicans were waiting on Mr. Biden to begin negotiating in earnest before passing any fiscal legislation. The White House, for its part, has ignored such overtures.
Mr. Biden has said that Republicans and Democrats have contributed to the more than $32 trillion national debt and both parties should come together to raise the debt limit.
“They’re putting our economy in jeopardy by threatening to refuse to pay America’s bills that took 200 years to accumulate,” Mr. Biden said during a recent swing through Minnesota. “Not this year, last year, [but] 200 years.”
The partisan back-and-forth is taking place as the Treasury has undertaken extraordinary measures to ensure the government continues to pay its debt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that those measures will last only until mid-July, by which time Congress must raise the debt limit or risk a default.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the U.S. government has already borrowed $1.1 trillion this fiscal year to make interest payments on the debt.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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