Kevin McCarthy insists he didn’t release the Republican budget because Biden delayed his — and claims the president has NO plans to continue talks to avoid a default of more than $31 trillion
- Biden will unveil his budget on Thursday — and the GOP’s budget will come out sometime in April
- McCarthy said Republicans couldn’t calculate their own budget because Biden’s was ‘delayed’
President Biden and Chairman Kevin McCarthy have no plans so far to meet again to conduct budget negotiations ahead of a June deadline that could lead to a default, the California Republican told reporters.
Biden will unveil his budget on Thursday — and the GOP’s budget is expected to come out sometime in April.
McCarthy has slammed Biden for passing the February deadline to reveal the budget, while Biden has pressured the speaker to release his own spending plans.
“One of the biggest challenges we have is the disappointment that the president is so late in preparing his budget,” said McCarthy, who asked when Republicans would work out their own plans.
“One of the biggest challenges we have is the disappointment that the president is so late in making his budget,” McCarthy said, when asked when Republicans would work out their own plans.
McCarthy argued that Republicans could not work with their own budgets until they saw the Democratic framework. ‘We’re going to analyze this budget and then we’ll get to work on our budget.’
McCarthy said he believed there could be “common land” but “there won’t be any new taxes.” Biden’s deficit reduction provisions are expected to rely heavily on new taxes on the wealthy.
The speaker would not provide any other details about what will be included in the GOP budget or when exactly it would be released.
The Biden White House has hit Republicans for huddling with former Trump budget official Russell Vought, and Vought confirmed to the New York Times he advises them on cuts to an “awakened and armed government.”
Vought reportedly proposed a 45% cut on foreign aid, work requirements for Americans on food stamps or Medicaid, and a 43% cut in housing programs and a 29% cut for the Department of Health and Human Services.
McCarthy also said Biden has not called him to set up a second meeting to discuss the budget — urging him to do so quickly.
‘He didn’t back down. He once told me he would,” the speaker told reporters.
“I think eventually he will, but that’s a wasted month. That’s a month that raises more financial doubt, that’s a month that hurts Americans. The sooner we get together, the more all of America will be looking forward to him being willing to sit down and move this forward.”
Meanwhile, Phil Swagel, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), gave a full House briefing on Wednesday to discuss the budget outlook and implications of the national debt.
Rep. Greg Murphy, RN.C., told DailyMail.com it was a “good bipartisan meeting” where the CBO executive was “determined that debt is a real problem.”
The country hit its $31.4 trillion borrowing limit in January, prompting the Treasury to take “extraordinary measures” to extend the deadline for running out of government money until June. Congress must act now to raise the debt limit.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has insisted that the GOP-led House will not agree to raise the debt limit unless the FY 2024 budget is cut. President Biden has strongly opposed debt limit negotiations.
In its annual budget outlook last month, CBO predicted that interest payments on the national debt would reach $10 trillion over the next 10 years. It found that combined Social Security and Medicare spending would nearly double by 2033, amounting to $4 trillion and accounting for 10 percent of economic output.
President Biden is expected to release his budget on Thursday — and he says it will include a $3 trillion deficit reduction, largely funded by tax hikes for the wealthy. House Republicans will present their own budget in mid-April. They’ve been eyeing $150 billion in discretionary cuts in non-defense spending to save $1.5 trillion over a decade and maintain annual spending increases of up to 1%.
In a post on the CBO’s website this week, Swagel said Congress could “almost stabilize” debt growth by reducing deficits by an average of $500 billion a year for savings of $5 trillion over the next decade – much sharper cuts than any party. considering.
Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Republicans are drafting a plan B if McCarthy and Biden maintain their deadlock over the debt ceiling, pushing the country closer to bankruptcy.
The commission announced on Thursday that it would pass a measure that would allow the Treasury to continue borrowing money to pay interest on the national debt if both sides can’t come to a budget agreement before funds run out – a sign that suggests they not entirely convinced that the two sides will reach an agreement.