Biden pushes for Republican proposal in U.S. debt-ceiling standoff
Send a link to a friend
[March 29, 2023]
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday
called on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to outline this week the spending
cuts Republicans want in exchange for votes to raise the government's
debt ceiling.
Biden urged the top congressional Republican to spell out his proposals
before lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week recess set to start on
Thursday.
That followed a missive from McCarthy proposing scaling back domestic
spending, clawing back unspent COVID-19 relief funds and other changes
that he said would save trillions of dollars.
"My hope is that House Republicans can present the American public with
your budget plan before the Congress leaves for Easter recess so that we
can have an in-depth conversation when you return," Biden wrote in a
letter posted on Twitter.
McCarthy told CNBC earlier that he was prepared to lay out $4 trillion
in spending cuts for Biden, if he would agree to meet. Republicans have
not yet produced a budget plan of their own and could be weeks or months
away from doing so.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/29/images/ads/current/heartland_lda_020123.png)
McCarthy's proposals, though lacking detail, paralleled the demands of
hard-right House Republicans far more closely than ideas put forward by
moderate Republicans.
Democrats said Republicans need to first unite behind a proposal.
Biden, a Democrat, has insisted that Republicans who control the House
instead raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling without conditions and
produce a fiscal 2024 spending plan before he will engage in talks about
spending.
"Your position - if maintained - could prevent America from meeting its
obligations and hold dire ramifications for the entire nation," McCarthy
had said earlier on Tuesday.
The political standoff, which has taken hold since Biden and McCarthy
held an initial meeting in early February, has raised concerns in the
financial markets about a possible U.S. debt default that could cripple
the economy.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/032923PIX/news_v5.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden talks with
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as they depart following the
annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, U.S., March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/29/images/ads/current/peasleymemorials_lda_2022.png)
Republicans have sought to blame Biden, but only Congress has the
authority to raise the debt ceiling.
"The only thing missing is a real plan," Democratic Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech.
Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus said McCarthy's letter
paralleled their own spending proposals and claimed it showed
adherence to a closed-door agreement with conservatives that allowed
him to become speaker in January.
"Today's letter from the speaker to the president represents Speaker
McCarthy's fidelity to that agreement," said Representative Matt
Gaetz, one of 20 hardliners who forced McCarthy to endure 15 floor
votes before being elected speaker.
The House Freedom Caucus has called for cutting nondefense
discretionary spending to pre-pandemic levels and allowing it to
return only to fiscal 2022 levels after a decade. McCarthy said he
wanted to reduce "excessive" nondefense spending to "pre-inflation"
levels with limited growth in future years.
Both also called for reclaiming unspent COVID-19 funds, imposing
work requirements on social programs for the poor, and deregulating
the energy sector.
The approach is a far cry from proposals offered by moderate
Republicans, who have called for holding government spending in line
with inflation, tying the debt ceiling to national output or raising
it without conditions.
(Reporting by David Morgan; additional reporting by Richard Cowan,
Kanishka Singh and Susan Heavey; editing by Andy Sullivan, Jonathan
Oatis and Chris Reese)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/29/images/ads/current/safetytip_sda_topflight_2023.png) |