(CNSNews.com) - The White House on Wednesday accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of “dangerous economic hostage-taking” with his plan to lift the debt ceiling.

“So what I can say is we — we’re — we’ve heard that there’s something coming out today — a plan coming out today. Speaker — Speaker McCarthy is engaging in dangerous economic hostage-taking,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said prior to the speaker unveiling his plan.
 
“You heard directly from the president. He was very clear about this yesterday in the Rose Garden, and taking — and that is threatening, as we all know, hard-working Americans’ jobs and retirement savings and his — and in his plan, and so it is clear that extreme House Republicans — the MAGA House Republicans — what they want to do,” she said.

“They’ve been very clear about this. They have told us over and over again they want to increase costs for hardworking families, take food assistance and healthcare away from millions of Americans, and increase the debt when combined with House Republicans’ proposal for tax giveaways skewed for the super-rich, special interests, and profitable companies, and that seems to be their priority,” the press secretary said.

“That is what they’ve put forth, and the president was very clear yesterday. He’s like, ‘What are they doing? What is the MAGA Republicans doing?’ Why would the speaker — like no other speaker has done this before — ‘threaten default? Why would he do this?” she said.
 
“And so, again, we’ve heard that this is coming out today, but we’ve been very clear about how we see what MAGA Republicans have been doing these past couple of months,” Jean-Pierre said.

Speaking on the House floor on Wednesday, McCarthy said, “President Biden has a choice: Come to the table and stop playing partisan political games or cover his ears, refuse to negotiate and risk bumbling his way into the first default in our nation’s history.”