‘He’s not one of these MAGA Republicans’: Biden praises New York Rep. standing next to him – then attacks Kevin McCarthy and the rest of the GOP for allegedly wanting to cut care for veterans from their debt plan
- Biden praised Rep. Mike Lawler (RN.Y.), who won with 51% of the vote
- Said he was on the ‘other team’ but wasn’t one of the ‘MAGA Republicans’
- He said the House GOP budget would cut funds for the FBI, air traffic control
President Joe Biden took his drive to try to force House Republicans to raise the debt limit on Wednesday — where he praised a member of the House GOP who voted for a budget plan that Biden rejected due to devastating cuts.
Biden flew to Westchester County, north of New York City, on Wednesday, where he immediately drew attention to Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who defeated Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney last year.
“He’s on the other team,” Biden said. He called him one of “the kind of Republicans I used to hang out with” when he was a legislator for 36 years.
“He’s not one of those MAGA Republicans,” Biden said.
He kicked off his speech on the risks of austerity that House Republicans are demanding as the price for raising the country’s legal debt limit.
President Joe Biden flew to Westchester New York where he hosted GOP Representative Mike Lawler and smashed the budget/debt limit plan Lawler voted for
But Lawler himself, who won the seat with just 51 percent of the vote, voted for the House GOP budget that raised the one-year debt limit and had only a 1 percent increase in spending — below inflation and a return to last year’s levels.
Lawler has called for avoiding default by raising the debt ceiling, but also urged BIden to negotiate with Republicans.
He represents a Hudson River Valley district and is one of five Republicans who carried blue districts to bring the House under GOP control in November 2022.
“I welcome him, of course,” said Lawler before Biden’s trip. “I’m willing to listen to what he has to say. But we have to negotiate in good faith and I think it’s wrong and downright hypocritical to just take the course we’re not going to negotiate.”
Biden was not so generous to McCarthy, or what he called the “very extreme wing” of the Republican Party.
“Now they call themselves the MAGA Republicans,” he told a crowd in White Plains.
“They have taken control of the House. They have a speaker who has his job because he gave in to the MAGA element of the party,” Biden said.
While Biden and the Republicans appeared unsuccessful with a meeting on Tuesday, they agreed to talk again Friday, with the country potentially defaulting within weeks as the Treasury runs out of “extraordinary measures” to prevent the debt limit is exceeded.
That came a day after Biden brought forward the narrow vote McCarthy had to overcome to seize the gavel, including making deals with members of the House’s arch-conservative “Freedom Caucus.”
Biden slammed ‘MAGA Republicans’ as he called on GOP to raise debt limit to avoid default
“They are literally holding the economy hostage by threatening to default on our nation’s debt that we’ve already incurred…unless we give in to their threats and demands about what they think we should do regarding the budget,” said Biden.
He said reducing spending levels to 2022 funding would amount to severe cuts to veterans’ benefits, teachers and law enforcement.
“The speaker and the Republicans don’t like that, I point that out,” Biden said. “But that’s not my opinion, it’s just basic math.”
He said the cuts, which protect defense spending, would result in the loss of 11,000 FBI agents, 2,000 Border Patrol agents and DEA agents.
“They should fire so many law enforcement officers,” he said.
He said the cuts would risk closing 375 air traffic control towers and eliminating 30 million veterans’ health visits by wiping out a $22 billion increase.
“There’s not enough staff,” he said. He even said the cuts could drive up veteran suicides by cutting aid. “They want to go back and fire those people who are now providing that kind of help,” Biden said.