President Joe Biden blasted the proposals House Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered in a speech to Wall Street, saying the Republican plan would slash benefits for the working and middle classes while causing economic chaos.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden blasted the proposals House Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered in a speech to Wall Street, saying the Republican plan would slash benefits for the working and middle classes while causing economic chaos.
Republican brinkmanship on the US borrowing limit threatened “to default on the debt, which is going to throw us in a gigantic recession and beyond unless he gets what he wants on the budget,” Biden said Tuesday. The president called on McCarthy and Republicans to take the threat of default off the table and release a budget outlining his tax and spending plans.
“Folks, you’ve got to ask yourself, what are Republicans in Congress doing? Because this is not your father’s Republican Party. It’s a different deal,” Biden said during a speech in the Rose Garden touting an executive action designed to promote affordable childcare.
Biden’s remarks were his most extensive response yet to McCarthy’s speech Monday at the New York Stock Exchange, which was meant to set a marker in the debt-limit standoff with the president.
The Speaker said the House would vote in the coming weeks on a proposal to raise the debt ceiling into 2024, but with new spending cuts attached.
While the speech was meant to reassure markets and investors the GOP is taking the negotiations seriously, it’s unclear if McCarthy has the votes to pass his plan.
Members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus have balked at McCarthy’s plan to keep non-discretionary, non-defense spending at 2022 levels. Republicans representing districts won by Biden are unsure about supporting measures like enhanced work requirements for safety-net programs.
“Their cuts to those critical programs I talked about won’t go to reduce the deficit after all,” Biden said.
The White House has said releasing a budget proposal is a prerequisite for Biden to sit down again with McCarthy. The two men have not held an extensive, in-person meeting since February.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.