The White House is downplaying the plan of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to lift the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first.

"We've heard that there's something coming out today — a plan coming out today," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday. "Speaker McCarthy is engaging in dangerous economic hostage-taking ... and that is threatening, as we all know, hard-working Americans' jobs and retirement savings."

BIDEN AND MCCARTHY ENTER THE NEXT PHASE OF THEIR DEBT CEILING SHOWDOWN

"What are they doing? What are MAGA Republicans doing?" Jean-Pierre asked. "Why would this speaker, like no other speaker has done this before, threaten default? Why would he do this? 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 days."

Earlier, the White House shared excerpts from Biden's speech Wednesday at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 in Accokeek, Maryland. In that address, he is expected to compare McCarthy's plan to "the same old trickle-down dressed up in MAGA clothing," but "only worse."

"While I’m here in this union hall with you, the Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy went to Wall Street two days ago to describe the MAGA economic vision," he is anticipated to say. "It was the day before Tax Day. Do you think he told the wealthy and powerful that it was finally time to start paying their fair share of taxes? No."

"Do you think he told billion-dollar companies to stop stashing profits in tax havens and shipping jobs overseas? No," he will add. "Instead he proposed huge cuts to important programs that millions of working- and middle-class Americans count on. All the while he and MAGA officials are separately pushing more tax giveaways that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations."

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Main Street Caucus Chairman Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) disputed the White House's response, contending once the House passes a debt ceiling plan, "the ball is in Biden's court."

“President Biden has ignored Speaker McCarthy for months, so we are going to get to work to ensure America doesn’t default on its debts," he told the Washington Examiner. "Republicans are going to cap spending and get our country on a better track when it comes to spending."