President Joe Biden and top White House officials outlined for the first time on Monday a clear-cut path toward raising the debt ceiling but remained adamant that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Republicans would bear responsibility should the country default this summer.
The White House has maintained, however, that, even though Biden requested this meeting, Congress must pass a clean debt limit hike before the president will enter into negotiations on federal spending levels.
WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS REPUBLICAN DEBT CEILING BILL VIOLATES NO NEW TAXES PLEDGE
Biden will host McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the White House on May 9. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced Monday that the "X Date," the point at which the federal government will exhaust the extraordinary measures being used to meet its debts, could occur as soon as June 1, more than a month ahead of the previous deadline.
The House passed McCarthy's Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 in late April. The bill would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or through March 31, 2024, whichever comes first, but also includes a number of conservative economic provisions criticized by the White House.
"Given the limited time Congress now has, it is clear that the only practical path to avoid default is for Congress to suspend the debt limit without conditions. During his meeting with the leaders, the president will discuss initiating a separate process to address the budget and appropriations because we have long said we welcome a conversation about spending priorities," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at Tuesday's press briefing.
"The updated projection should be a wake-up call to Congress. It is time for the speaker and the MAGA Republicans to stop the brinkmanship and act to prevent default, which would have devastating consequences on our economy and the American people," she continued. "It is Congress's constitutional obligation to act, not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage unless we allow them to make cuts to programs hardworking Americans rely upon."
Multiple senior Democratic officials told the Washington Examiner that Biden still holds the "upper hand" on the debt ceiling despite the rapidly approaching X Date.
"American voters have voiced strong support for President Biden's attempts to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, which ultra MAGA Republicans are directly trying to undercut," one official stated. "The country rejected the MAGA agenda in the midterms, and voters won't forget it if Republicans continue putting politics over their own constitutional duty."
"Kevin McCarthy is barely maintaining control over his own conference. There's no way he would risk losing even a shred of that power just to crash the economy," a second official bluntly added.
And White House officials have kept up their critiques of McCarthy's budget strategy, including launching new lines of attack in recent days.
In no particular order, the White House has accused the Limit, Save, Grow Act of violating a long-held Republican pledge not to raise taxes in any way, terminating thousands of Border Patrol agents, cutting Medicare and Medicaid, and rolling back the savings passed down to families by the Inflation Reduction Act.
The White House's newest line of attack focuses on possible cuts to veterans' healthcare and benefits programs.
"There is no constituency in this nation that supports threatening to kill millions of jobs unless the [Department of Veterans Affairs] is gutted, except apparently extreme MAGA Republicans, House Republicans, to be even more specific," Jean-Pierre stated Tuesday. "Their bill would cut 81,000 jobs from the VA, reducing outpatient visits by 30 million, and increase the disability claims backlog by an estimated 134,000. More than two dozen veterans’ organizations publicly pleaded with House Republicans to protect veterans from general budget cuts. Republicans refused. Republicans made last-minute changes to protect special interests, but they refuse to include veterans in those protections."
"Sadly, Republicans are now attacking the very veterans group who raised alarm bells about these draconian cuts to the programs veterans and families rely on," she concluded.
McCarthy and Republicans have proposed wide-ranging funding cuts to Biden's signature programs as possible debt ceiling bargaining chips, but Jean-Pierre declined to outline which, if any, of those programs the president would agree to on Tuesday.
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"As it relates to the budget, the spending, appropriations process, that is something, a conversation that the president is happy to have with Speaker McCarthy and other leaders," she stated. "Obviously, to have this discussion on how to move forward and what we value, what we see our values are for the American people, how we move forward with our economy — we've always been very clear about that when it comes to, again, appropriations and budget. But again, I just have to say this very clearly: When it comes to the debt, Congress must act."