Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy announced that the House Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling. The spokesman stopped by the New York Stock Exchange and laid out his two-part plan: first to prevent the government from defaulting on its obligations and then to reduce government spending over the next decade.
The legislation would reach Congress in the coming weeks and would primarily aim to return spending to 2022 levels. McCarthy did not miss the opportunity to criticize Joe Biden in this case for refusing to continue negotiations on the downsizing of the federal government.
"The longer President Biden waits to be sensible, to find agreement, the more likely it becomes that his administration will bumble into the first default in our nation’s history. Let me be clear: a no-strings-attached debt limit increase cannot pass. But since the President continues to hide, House Republicans will take action," said the Chamber's spokesman.
In addition, he called for federal agencies to be governed by the logic of the average U.S. household. "The bloated, overgrown bureaucracy that has expanded under President Biden needs to be pruned, and that’s exactly what we’ll do. If Washington wants to spend more, it will have to come together to find savings elsewhere, just like every household in America does," he added.
McCarthy's plan for the debt ceiling resembles that proposed by the House Freedom Caucus, the Republican bloc of lawmakers charged with voting against him in January, when he sought to take over the speaker's gavel. The group had previously agreed to vote to raise the debt ceiling, subject to certain conditions.
If there’s one thing I hope America has learned about me in these first 100 days since I was elected Speaker, it’s this: I will never give up.
We owe it to the American people to use this moment in history to deliver the future they want, need, and deserve. pic.twitter.com/4exWlM6P2t
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) April 17, 2023
For example, the proposal includes terminating the White House's student loan cancellation plan, cutting the $80 billion recently allocated to double the size of the IRS and canceling unspent stimulus funds.
The White House responded to McCarthy's comments and asserted that House Republicans would "increase costs for hard-working families, take food assistance and health care away from millions of Americans, and yet would enlarge the deficit when combined with House Republican proposals for tax giveaways skewed to the super-rich, special interests, and profitable companies."
