The main fundraising arm for House Republicans is calling on vulnerable Democrats to tell President Joe Biden to restart negotiations with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on the debt ceiling crisis, threatening to hold lawmakers “accountable” if they do not do so.
The National Republican Congressional Committee issued a memo Friday morning pressuring Democrats who face tough reelection prospects to tell Biden to return to the negotiating table and discuss McCarthy’s debt ceiling package proposal that was unveiled earlier this week. The call comes as Biden and McCarthy have not met to discuss the debt ceiling in nearly three months.
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“Voters hate Democrats who make promises in election years to do the right thing, but suddenly go mute when the country needs them to speak up,” NRCC Communications Director Jack Pandol said in a statement. “Runaway spending ballooned on Democrats’ watch and their bill has come due. House Democrats can take responsibility for their spending choices now by telling President Biden to grow up and negotiate.”
The memo pointed to 37 House Democrats whom the GOP has been tracking as particularly vulnerable in the 2024 elections, threatening to “hold them accountable if they fail to stand up to President Biden.”
McCarthy unveiled his long-awaited debt ceiling package on Wednesday, proposing to raise the debt ceiling over the next year either by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first. McCarthy detailed some of the proposals included in his “Limit, Save, Grow” plan that will “responsibly raise debt into next year and provide $4.5 trillion in savings,” he said.
Biden rejected the package shortly after it was released, indicating he would not meet to discuss McCarthy’s proposals. Several Democrats expressed concern with Biden’s refusal to negotiate, with many lawmakers calling on the president to meet with McCarthy to move discussions forward.
“It has been more than 78 days since President Biden last met with Speaker McCarthy,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said. “This signals a deficiency of leadership, and it must change.”
McCarthy met with Biden in January to begin negotiations on the debt ceiling, but that meeting ended without a binding agreement because the White House maintained it would not discuss federal spending until the borrowing limit was lifted. McCarthy said he has not spoken with Biden since that initial meeting, accusing the president of “bumbling his way into the first default in our nation’s history.”
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“President Biden is skipping town to deliver a speech in Maryland rather than sitting down to address the debt ceiling,” McCarthy said on Wednesday. “He’s giving America’s debt the southern border treatment: ignoring it and hope that it goes away. In fact, he’s been avoiding the issue for 77 straight days and counting.”
The White House has declined to continue negotiations until Republicans release their budget proposal for the next fiscal year — a talking point that has been repeatedly used by Democrats in recent weeks.
