House Speaker Kevin McCarthy took a Washington, D.C., correspondent to school after being questioned whether the United States would default on paying its debt.
The question came after McCarthy had his first meeting as speaker with President Joe Biden at the White House Wednesday.
McCarthy told reporters the one-on-one lasted an hour and he described it as a “good first meeting.”
“No promises” were made or agreements reached, the speaker said.
“Can you commit that the U.S. will not default on its obligations?” a reporter asked, as the federal national debt ceiling approaches in the coming months.
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Her tone and wording suggested that Biden is acting responsibly, but “you Republicans may be willing to drive the country off a fiscal cliff.”
Nothing could be further from the truth, which I will explain momentarily.
McCarthy answered the gotcha question masterfully by providing an analogy.
“If you have a child and you give them a credit card, and they spend that limit, you’re responsible for paying that credit card,” the speaker began.
Should the Congress raise the debt ceiling?
Yes: 4% (4 Votes)
No: 96% (96 Votes)
“But the responsible thing to is going forward, not just raise the limit, but look at how you’re spending,” he added.
Now there’s something that many people can relate to.
If you run a credit card up to its limit, because your expenditures are exceeding your income, you’ve got to reduce expenditures or increase income or both to get your fiscal house back in order.
REPORTER: “Can you commit that the US will not default on its obligations?”
MCCARTHY: “If you have a child, & you give them a credit card, & they spend that limit, you’re responsible for paying that credit card. […] Not just raise the limit, but look at how you’re spending.” pic.twitter.com/jH9SN4oddW
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 1, 2023
Otherwise, interest on your debt alone will eventually bankrupt you.
“If we continue the trajectory that we’re on, in the next 10 years, we’ll spending $8 trillion just on interest,” McCarthy noted.
“The greatest threat to America is our debt. Our debt is now at 120 percent of GDP, meaning our debt is larger than our economy. This is higher than at any time in American history,” he said.
McCarthy highlighted that the United States is in this predicament despite revenue hitting an all-time high in Fiscal Year 2022 of $4.9 trillion.
To give some perspective, the federal government spent $4.4 trillion in 2019.
So if there had been some modicum of spending restraint under Biden and the Democrats these past two years, the nation could have balanced the budget or come close.
Instead, Democrats spent $6.27 trillion for a deficit of $1.38 trillion in FY 2022, which was at least better than the $2.8 trillion deficit in FY 2021, the 46th president’s first year in office.
“So we’ve got a lot of revenue. We just have a spending problem,” McCarthy concluded.
.@SpeakerMcCarthy on meeting with President Biden: “I’ve just walked out having an hour conversation with this president that I tell you in perspective was a good conversation. No agreements, no promises except we will continue this conversation.” pic.twitter.com/FfIsqE5fvz
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 1, 2023
He points out the massive spending, and thereby the printing of more dollars under Biden and the Democrats has led to the 40-year high inflation.
Reporters should not be asking the, “Are you going to do the responsible thing?” question to McCarthy and the Republicans, but rather to Biden and the Democrats who have run the nation’s credit card up and Americans’ standard of living down.
