House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said President Joe Biden is attempting to cause a debt crisis by refusing to negotiate with Republicans.
Appearing on ABC News’s “This Week” Sunday, Scalise blasted Biden for rejecting the debt ceiling bill passed by House Republicans earlier this week and for refusing to negotiate over the debt limit with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
“The White House needs to ultimately get into this negotiation,” Scalise told host Martha Raddatz. “The president’s been in hiding for two months, Martha. That’s not acceptable to Americans. They expect the president to sit in a room with Speaker McCarthy and start negotiating, not hiding, not waiting and trying to get a debt crisis.”
Scalise also took other Democrats to task for rejecting the Republican bill.
“If they got a better idea, I want to see that bill and tell them to pass it through the Senate,” he said. “We just passed the bill through the House, and we’ve been very vocal. It’s been over two months since President Biden has sat down with Speaker McCarthy to have negotiations. President Biden is clearly trying to run out the clock and create a debt crisis. That’s irresponsible. Republicans at least said if the president is going to set this one out, we’re not. We’re going to lead. We passed a bill to address the problem.”
“It’s time now for the president to get in this game, get off the sidelines and let’s start negotiating and figuring this out — not in June when we get into the midnight hour, but today,” he concluded. “We have a lot of time to get this done. But we can’t wait another two months like President Biden has done.”
House Republicans passed the “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023” on a party-line basis Wednesday; the final tally was 217-215. Four Republicans: Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Tim Burchett (R-TN), and Ken Buck (R-CO) did not vote for the bill. Three other members did not vote. The bill suspends the debt ceiling until it rises by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024 — whichever comes first. The bill also returns spending to 2022 levels and caps new spending at 1% per year; it also reclaims unspent COVID-19 funds and repeals several Biden spending policies.
McCarthy dared Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to put an alternative debt ceiling plan to a vote and challenged Biden to agree to talks. “Now, the president can no longer put this economy in jeopardy,” McCarthy said.
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But the Biden administration said the president would veto the bill before the House even passed it.
“The administration strongly opposes the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, which is a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a policy statement on Tuesday. “The bill stands in stark contrast to the President’s vision for the economy… Therefore, if the President were presented with the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, he would veto it.”