House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday that Republicans will pass his proposal to raise the debt ceiling this week even amid resistance from some in the GOP that jeopardizes the legislation.
The California Republican said his debt limit plan is about forcing Senate Democrats and President Biden to the negotiating table, suggesting that any GOP lawmakers who vote against it would be rubber-stamping the administration’s “reckless spending.”
“I cannot imagine someone in our conference who would want to go along with Biden’s reckless spending. This is responsible, this is something we have sat down for months and everybody’s had input in,” Mr. McCarthy said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.” “It doesn’t solve all our problems, but it gets us on the right path. This gets us to the negotiating table just as [the] government and America expects us to do.”
The proposal would lift the nation’s debt limit by $1.5 trillion through March 2024, cut spending to 2022 levels, cap future budget increases to 1% annually over the next decade, roll back Democrats’ tax-and-climate-spending law known as the Inflation Reduction Act, claw back unspent COVID-19 money and block Mr. Biden’s student loan forgiveness.
The country is set to default on its debt this summer unless Congress raises the current ceiling of $31.4 trillion.
With the deadline fast approaching, Mr. Biden has refused to engage in spending-cut talks with House Republicans, demanding the limit be raised with no strings attached.
Democrats have grown increasingly anxious about Mr. Biden’s unwillingness to negotiate, worried that talks could come too late and force the U.S. over a fiscal cliff.
“Mark my words: when we look to the future and there is a new housing crisis and there’s a new default, it is his actions,” Mr. McCarthy said. “It’s a socialist belief that you reward bad behavior.”
Some of the harshest rhetoric over Mr. Biden’s lack of discussions with Republicans has come within his own party. Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia blasted it as a “deficiency of leadership.”
“America is facing a historic economic crisis brought on by an abject failure to address our exploding national debt, chronic inflation, a looming recession and the more immediate need to raise the debt ceiling,” Mr. Manchin said last week. “Our elected leaders must stop with the political games, work together and negotiate a compromise.”
But so far, Mr. Biden has refused to blink. He has recycled rhetoric about MAGA Republicans putting America’s credit in jeopardy and that the GOP’s spending cut demands are a nonstarter for any debt limit legislation. Democrats and the president say such discussions are only appropriate for budget talks.
“MAGA Republicans in Congress are threatening to default on the national debt, the debt that took 230 years to accumulate overall — overall — unless we do what they say,” Mr. Biden said last week. “They say they’re going to default unless I agree to all these wacko notions they have.”
Mr. McCarthy, responding to Mr. Biden’s assertions, countered that Republicans “are the only ones in Washington who are putting a responsible plan out” to avert default.
“I’m beginning to wonder about the words that he says and the thoughts that he’s using because the idea that he won’t even negotiate for more than 80 days, he is now putting the country in default,” he said. “We’re the only ones being responsible and sensible about this.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.