No, seriously, take your time.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has said her Republican colleagues are not “sweating” the impending federal debt ceiling crisis that officials warn could cause “economic calamity” if not soon resolved.
The far-right lawmaker appeared on former Trump White House political strategist Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Wednesday to downplay contentious talks between the Biden administration and House Republicans on raising the nation’s credit limit.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the US will default as early as June 1 if an agreement is not reached — a doomsday scenario that would halt Social Security and Medicare payments and cause devastating ripple effects across the economy.
“Has Janet Yellen come forward and shown you as a business person any set of math?” Greene asked Bannon.
“No, she’s over there with smoke and mirrors. Seriously, it’s such a joke. And let’s be real. Guess what? This is something that every taxpayer knows, this government here, they take in money every single day, Steve. There’s plenty of cash. It comes flooding in every day. And what do they do over there at the Treasury? They just keep printing more money.”
The White House has projected that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause the stock market to drop by 45%, and result in the loss of some 8 million jobs.
“Well, here’s what’s happening in our conference,” Greene said of her fellow Republicans. “We’re not sweating this at all. No one is freaking out. No one is concerned about this mystery date that Janet Yellen has thrown out, like it’s going to actually crash America.
“The only people worked up about the mystery date is probably the New York Stock Exchange,” she added. “I mean, let’s be real about exactly what it is. Regular Americans living their lives day in and day out don’t worry about the government shutting down.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday that he was optimistic a deal could be reached by next week, and said the impasse with Democrats was “not his fault.”
The House of Representatives had approved a bill that would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for sinking many of President Biden’s budget initiatives, which the White House said is a non-starter.
Some Democrats have called for Biden to invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt limit in an end run around Congress. The clause states “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.”
Biden has not ruled out the maneuver, but the White House said Tuesday it would not “fix the current problem,” and called on Congress to “do its job.”
Financial markets were already teetering at the prospect of an unprecedented default and Fitch Ratings agency placed the country’s AAA credit on “ratings watch negative” Wednesday amid the kerfuffle.
Greene’s interview with Bannon came a day before a New York judge set a May 2024 trial date for the 69-year-old on charges that he defrauded donors who contributed more than $15 million to build former President Donald Trump’s much-hyped wall along the Mexican border. Only a small fraction of the structure was ever erected.
Trump pardoned Bannon from federal charges related to the inquest, but that exemption did not apply to a state investigation led by Albany prosecutors.
Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy and scheming to defraud donors.
Two of his associates in the scheme were recently sentenced to multiple years in prison for their roles and a third cohort has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing.
A federal jury convicted Bannon last year of two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee probing his role in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riots.
His four-month prison sentence has been delayed as he appeals the conviction.
With Post wires