Democrats are putting the ball in Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) court in a standoff over the debt ceiling as President Joe Biden releases his budget proposal on Thursday, pressuring the House speaker to unveil his own spending plan.
Biden and his congressional allies are eager for Republicans to roll out a budget resolution, anticipating that the document will become political ammunition showing the GOP intends to make deep cuts to popular federal programs in an effort to balance the budget.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates lawmakers need to raise the debt limit by September to avoid default, casting a shadow over the entire appropriations process as many Republicans call for spending to be pared back in exchange for raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
“Show us your plan” has become a rallying cry from Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as he and other Democrats raise the specter of cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The Senate majority leader has even goaded Republicans by questioning whether the GOP wants to cut funding to veterans and first responders.
“We continue to wait and wait and wait for Speaker McCarthy’s plan on the debt ceiling,” Schumer said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
McCarthy promised his members the GOP-led House would write fiscal 2024 appropriations bills at 2022 levels during his battle for the gavel earlier this year, which would require a cut of more than $130 billion. Uniting his conference around a list of cuts could be the biggest test yet for McCarthy’s leadership.
“They have yet to put their cards on the table. They keep talking in these generalities,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the majority whip. “It’s time to first establish what they can pass in the House of Representatives.”
But McCarthy must also deal with Democrats, who have rejected negotiating over the debt limit, arguing it’s irresponsible to pair a hike in the cap to a budget deal.
Budget experts say that without tax increases, lawmakers are limited in what they can cut if military spending and programs such as Social Security or Medicare are off the table. McCarthy has pledged not to touch the popular entitlements, and he's publicly ruled out tax hikes. An increasing number of GOP lawmakers are also calling for defense spending cuts to be taken off the table.
Internal divisions over how to reduce spending illustrate the political challenges Republicans face as they attempt to extract concessions from Biden and his fellow Democrats, a reality the White House and congressional Democrats are attempting to use to their advantage.
“We hear Republicans in Congress talking about how they’re going to release a budget. And we are calling on them to show us: What’s in your budget? Is it going to be transparent? Is it going to be fiscally responsible?” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing on Wednesday.
MCCARTHY BLAMES BIDEN FOR STALLED DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS
McCarthy said the president's position of not negotiating on the debt limit is indefensible and said Biden has not reached out for another meeting since an initial discussion they had over a month ago.
“That's a month wasted. That's a month that brings more doubt financially; that's a month that hurts Americans. The sooner we get together, the better off all America will be, so I'm looking forward to him being willing to sit down and be able to move this forward,” McCarthy said after a House briefing with Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel on Wednesday.
Congressional Democrats and the White House are skeptical Republicans can produce their own budget after the chaos of the speaker's election. McCarthy is pledging to produce a budget in the months ahead but blamed Biden's delayed budget for Republicans' own budget timeline.
“We'll analyze his budget, and then we'll get to work on our budget,” the speaker said. “But, unfortunately, the president being so far delayed delays us in this process as well.”
The White House is supposed to release its budget by the first Monday in February, a deadline it has missed for the last three years. Meanwhile, Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said it is “safe to say” his panel will not be able to meet Congress’s statutory April 15 deadline to adopt a budget resolution.
“It will be in the near future, but it won’t be until we appropriately asses, analyze the president’s priorities in his budget,” he said, according to Roll Call.
Republicans in the upper chamber said they’re watching closely as the budget process plays out, with the White House and House Republicans leading negotiations.
“I’ll wait and see because the House is going to be the place where I think all the action is going to be, so I want to see what their budget looks like,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), a budget hawk who believes Congress should tackle deficits more aggressively.
Braun said there’s increasing pressure for Republicans in the House to reveal their proposal soon. He said a couple members of the Senate GOP conference have been in touch with McCarthy but that they are “giving them time to flesh out their budget” before they get more involved.
“There’s no way we can solve any of our budget issues unless we’re realistic that it’s not a revenue problem,” Braun said. “Somehow, we’ve got to have an appetite for less spending, so future generations are going to be loaded up with a lot of debt.”
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Other Senate Republicans don’t see the need for McCarthy and House Republicans to rush putting together their own budget proposal in response to Biden’s budget, especially since every president’s budget as written is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t see the need to do this quickly. I think the speaker and his colleagues on the Republican side have an idea of the parameters, but I don’t believe Speaker McCarthy is going to negotiate reductions and the rate of growth and spending and debt accumulation in the media,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).
The Republican Study Committee issued a “policy menu” of options that could be part of a debt limit deal on Wednesday. The memo included cutting next year’s spending down to fiscal 2022 levels, pursuing 10 years of discretionary spending caps, and setting a single cap on overall discretionary spending. The discretionary budget refers to federal spending not marked as "mandatory," which includes popular programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
“They need to show us exactly what they want,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), a new member of the Appropriations Committee. “If they were responsible, they’d show us, but they are continuing to play games.”