WASHINGTON – House Republicans are demanding sharp spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit this year, but they’re suggesting President Joe Biden and Democrats must decide what to cut in the federal budget.
“If Washington is spending so much money, isn’t there any money that President Biden knows is wasted in Washington?” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the No. 2 House Republican, said Wednesday.
Republicans’ refusal to come up with a detailed plan to deal with the debt is the result of much internal bickering within the narrow GOP House majority, as well as a reluctance to propose cuts to popular domestic programs, including Social Security and Medicare.
Instead of proposing the spending cuts they want to see, Republicans complained this week about Biden’s refusal to negotiate on the debt ceiling, which has been raised three times under President Donald Trump without a hitch. With a June deadline to act, the debt ceiling debate has begun with a debate over negotiations – and which side bears more responsibility.
“I think we have to be wise and we have to be responsible. We have to have a responsible debt ceiling,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday. “I want to look the president in the eye [and hear him] say there is not one dollar in wasteful spending in government?”
Democrats, meanwhile, counter that the party demands spending cuts should lay out the program that calls for the ax – something the Republicans are reluctant to do because they know they will get walloped for it on the campaign trail for the next two years.
“The House GOP is threatening to cut spending. So, what’s that?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DNY) asked in a floor speech Wednesday. “Why are you thirsty? Why are you hiding your conference from the American people? House Republicans: Where are your cards?”
The White House has indicated that Biden will meet with McCarthy in the coming weeks to discuss the debt limit and other legislative business.
The debt ceiling is a legal limit, set by Congress, on the amount of money the Treasury Department is allowed to borrow. Failure to raise the limit could result in the federal government defaulting on payments to bondholders and Social Security recipients, which could lead to a financial crisis and recession.
Republicans have suggested they want to see severe spending cuts, but they also want to save the military. Most federal spending outside of defense lies in popular entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
But Republicans have been unclear about whether they will pursue entitlement reform. McCarthy said only that Republicans would “always protect Medicare and Social Security.“
In 2011, when the Republicans took the debt ceiling hostage, Congress ended the settlement for the short-lived cap on “discretionary spending,” which means restrictions on funds for federal agencies and no changes to the popular pension program. After the federal government came close to failure, President Barack Obama then vowed not to negotiate on the debt limit again. As the next deadline approached in 2013, Obama was really arrested and Republicans blinked.
But the Obama administration has been open to a “grand bargain” with Republicans that would combine spending and benefits on programs like Social Security to reduce the federal budget deficit. Biden even became Obama’s envoy one of several ad-hoc discussion groups.
McCarthy recalled Wednesday that Biden used to be more open to negotiations.
“This is not Joe Biden’s past behavior,” McCarthy said. “When Joe Biden was vice president [they even called them] ‘Biden spoke.’” He praised the idea of joint negotiations.
When he ran for president in 2020, Biden ditched his past deficit peddlers and proposed closing the funding gap in Social Security by using only taxes on higher-income earners. And the Biden White House has yet to show openness to new big deals.
The wrangling over the debt limit is still in its early stages, with both sides looking forward to a showdown between Biden and McCarthy. Republicans have not coalesced around specific questions in exchange for hiking the debt ceiling, but have thrown out general ideas like a balanced budget amendment and a $100 billion cap on discretionary spending in the coming year.
“Exactly what that is, we’re not willing to lay it out today. We’re going to do it in consultation with the House,” Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters when asked if, specifically, he and other Senate conservatives want to eliminate the budget.
“I’m not going to take the bait from the Democrats’ narrative. I know they’re very happy with this,” added Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) after the same question.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) offered one specific idea: cutting funding for food stamps and Medicaid recipients who do not have children and who are disabled. Kennedy said the proposal would save $75 billion a year, or about one-tenth of the federal budget over that period.
But Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) said he is confident that Biden and Republicans in the House will eventually iron out their differences in negotiations over the debt ceiling.
“Ultimately we have to say: ‘This is what we want,'” Graham said.