The Biden White House launched a new line of debt limit attacks against House Republicans ahead of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-CA) Monday speech in New York.
McCarthy is slated to lay out the GOP’s budget proposals amid an escalating standoff with President Joe Biden over the debt limit.
MCCARTHY’S PAST WINS DON’T MATTER IF HE CAN’T DELIVER ON DEBT
McCarthy and Republicans are refusing to address the debt ceiling without extracting spending concessions from Democrats but have failed to propose specific cuts, which White House officials say is already threatening the “reliability and credibility” of U.S. credit months ahead of this summer’s deadline.
“There is one responsible solution to the debt limit: addressing it promptly, without brinksmanship or hostage taking — as Republicans did three times in the last administration and as Presidents Trump and Reagan argued for in office,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement Monday morning. “Speaker McCarthy is holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, threatening our economy and hardworking Americans’ retirement.”
Bates claimed McCarthy’s speech “isn’t a plan, but it’s clear that extreme MAGA Republicans’ wish lists will impose devastating cuts on hardworking families, send manufacturing overseas, take healthcare and food assistance away from millions of people, and increase energy costs — all while adding trillions to the debt with tax cuts skewed to the super-wealthy and corporations.”
The White House has pointed to how Democrats worked with Republicans to raise the debt limit in the previous administration but additionally quoted former Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan cautioning against debt ceiling “brinkmanship.”
Bates pointed to remarks Trump gave in 2019 about working with then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to avoid a debt showdown.
“I can’t imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge,” Trump remarked at the time. “[I said to] Sen. Schumer and to Nancy Pelosi, ‘Would anybody ever use that to negotiate with?’ They said, ‘Absolutely not.’ That’s a sacred element of our country.”
Reagan, in a 1987 radio address, similarly claimed that debt “brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits.”
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“The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility — two things that set us apart from much of the world.”
