The White House on Wednesday blasted House Republicans for saying they likely won’t introduce their budget before the unofficial deadline for both sides to reach an agreement on raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said that Republican leaders every week “invent a new excuse to hide their budget from the American people even while signaling that they would impose devastating cuts to American manufacturing, law enforcement, Medicare benefits, and our ability to block fentanyl trafficking – in order to provide rich special interests with new, deficit-worsening tax giveaways.”
Rep. Jodey Arrington, Texas Republican and House Budget Committee chairman, said Wednesday that the GOP’s budget process could take months to play out, likely pushing its formal proposal past the early June deadline for raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
“The more urgent matter is to address the debt ceiling and negotiate spending limitations and broader fiscal reforms in the process,” Mr. Arrington told The Wall Street Journal. The report said Mr. Arrington would be disappointed if the House doesn’t pass a budget resolution by the end of the fiscal year in September.
President Biden has been calling on House GOP leaders to introduce their proposed budget as a starting point for talks on the debt ceiling. Republicans say the president must agree to spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt limit, while Mr. Biden says Congress must raise the limit without conditions.
Mr. Bates said Mr. Arrington “is also proving President Biden’s warning in State of the Union warning correct: They intend to cut Social Security benefits at the same time.”
The Treasury Department reached the roughly $31.4 trillion debt limit in January and is now using special accounting methods to keep the federal government from defaulting on its obligations.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the U.S. could be unable to pay all of its bills as soon as this summer.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, sent a letter Tuesday to Mr. Biden calling for talks to begin immediately. The GOP proposes to roll back spending to fiscal 2022 levels and lock in small annual spending increases after that.
The GOP also wants to claw back unspent COVID-19 funds, expand energy policy to include more fossil fuel production, and other proposals.
