House Speaker Kevin McCarthy criticized President Biden on Wednesday for refusing to negotiate with Republicans on slashing spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, took to social media to slam Mr. Biden for traveling to Maryland to deliver a speech attacking Republicans on their debt limit stance.
“Instead of leaving town today to give a speech, Biden should sit down with me, find agreement and avoid the prospect of his administration bumbling into the first default in our nation’s history,” said the speaker.
The comment comes as Mr. Biden is set to appear at a union hall in the Old Line State on Wednesday. Mr. Biden’s remarks have been billed by the White House as a searing response to the GOP’s demands.
“The president will highlight the impacts of Speaker McCarthy and extreme MAGA House Republicans’ threatened 22% spending cuts — to veterans’ health care, child care and opioid treatment,” said a White House official. “He’ll explain how House Republicans are trying to take away food assistance and health care from millions of Americans and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, sending manufacturing overseas.”
Mr. Biden has refused to negotiate with House Republicans for months, arguing that because Republicans and Democrats have contributed to the more than $31 trillion national debt, both parties should come together to raise the debt limit.
In calling for a clean debt ceiling hike, the White House cites prior instances during the Reagan and Trump administrations where Democrats and Republicans opted to raise the borrowing cap in a bipartisan fashion.
Mr. McCarthy said that rather than making campaign-style speeches, Mr. Biden should begin negotiations in earnest on raising the cap on how much the federal government can borrow to pay its expenses.
“For 77 days, President Biden has ignored the impending debt ceiling crisis,” said Mr. McCarthy.
The speaker made the comments even though he had traveled to Wall Street on Monday to criticize Mr. Biden’s stance before an audience at the New York Stock Exchange.
The partisan bickering 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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