Republicans could raise debt limit until May 2024 in exchange for cutting spending to FY 2022 level
Republicans Want to Raise Debt Limit to May 2024 – If Drastic Cost Cut and 1% Per Year Budget Increase Cap: GOP Takes First Step in Negotiations with Biden as Summer Deadline Fast Approaches
- The House GOP leadership has informally begun drafting a proposal to share with full members when Congress meets again next week
- Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden are still deadlocked over the debt ceiling and haven’t discussed it in over two months
- After reducing spending to FY 2022 levels, leadership is also considering limits on general discretionary spending or non-defense discretionary spending
Republicans are beginning to draft a plan to raise the debt ceiling through May 2024 in exchange for cutting spending to fiscal year 2022 levels.
The House GOP leadership has informally begun drafting a proposal to share with full members when Congress is back in session next week — as Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden remain deadlocked on the debt ceiling and don’t have it. discussed over two months.
In exchange for lifting the country’s borrowing limit above $31.4 trillion, Republicans would demand a spending cut and a cap on budget growth of 1 percent per year for the next decade, according to a Punchbowl News report.
After cutting spending to FY 2022 levels, which would be a $131 billion cut from current levels, leadership is also considering limits on general discretionary spending or non-defense discretionary spending. One cap being thrown around is $584 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, not including Veterans Affairs programs.
Republicans, led by Speaker McCarthy above, are beginning to draft a plan to raise the debt ceiling through May 2024 in exchange for cutting spending to FY 2022 levels
Rep. Garrett Graves, R-La., is leading the new plan.
The proposal would also withdraw unused Covid-19 funds and undo a number of Biden priorities — banning student loan forgiveness and eliminating some green tax credits, instituting stricter job requirements for social programs.
Republicans also want to include in their budget deal their sprawling energy package, the House-approved HR 1, and the regulatory-reducing REINS bill.
The House GOP is expected to release its entire budget this month. The country reached its borrowing limit in January and the Treasury said it had to take “extraordinary” measures by shuffling money in different accounts to keep the government afloat. These measures will dry up in the summer, somewhere between June and September.
Kevin McCarthy and President Biden are still deadlocked over the debt ceiling and haven’t discussed it in over two months
Since Republicans took over the House, both sides have been at odds over how to increase the country’s borrowing limit. Biden has said Congress must approve a clean debt ceiling increase without spending cuts and McCarthy has said he will only agree to lift the debt limit in exchange for spending cuts.
McCarthy has demanded that Biden invite him back to the White House to work out their differences. Biden has also requested that the speaker release his GOP budget before coming to the negotiating table.
Biden unveiled his own $6.8 trillion spending package last month that Republicans mocked. The White House has since criticized the release of budget priorities by the far-right Freedom Caucus.
The political stalemate has raised concerns that the country is going bankrupt for the first time, which would be devastating to the economy – both in the US and abroad.