President Joe Biden will veto House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt limit proposal if it advances through both chambers of Congress, according to White House officials.
The Office of Management and Budget said in a policy statement on Tuesday morning that 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 President has been clear that he will not accept such attempts at hostage-taking. House Republicans must take default off the table and address the debt limit without demands and conditions, just as the Congress did three times during the prior Administration,” the statement continues. “The bill stands in stark contrast to the President’s vision for the economy. The President’s Budget invests in America, lowers costs for families, grows the economy, and reduces the deficit by nearly $3 trillion by asking the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share. Therefore, if the President were presented with the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, he would veto it.”
The announcement from the Biden administration comes amid the president announcing his bid for reelection in 2024, after which McCarthy condemned Biden for promoting his campaign rather than discussing the nation’s debt.“I know President Biden might be focused on his own political future today, but he should be focused on the future of America,” McCarthy said.
House Republicans released their long-awaited proposal last week to avert a debt ceiling crisis.
The 320-page “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023,” introduced by GOP leadership on Wednesday, would lift the U.S. debt limit by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024 — whichever comes first. As a trade-off, Republicans want a variety of spending cuts and commitments to foster economic growth.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivered remarks on the House floor, explaining that the legislation led by Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) seeks to “responsibly raise the debt limit into next year and provide more than $4.5 trillion in savings to American taxpayers.”
To reach that goal, McCarthy said the proposal would limit government spending, return discretionary spending to the pre-inflationary fiscal year 2022 levels, and then limit spending growth to 1% per year.
Following McCarthy’s announcement, President Biden said he refused to meet with the House Speaker to negotiate the debt limit until GOP lawmakers release a 10-year budget proposal, The Hill reported.
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McCarthy said the House would hold a vote this coming week.
“We will pass it, and we will send it to the Senate,” he said.
Though the upper chamber is narrowly controlled by Democrats, McCarthy suggested that House Republicans would have momentum by passing a bill.
“When we send this to the Senate, we’re showing that, yes, we’re able to raise the debt ceiling into the next year, but what we’re doing is, we’re being responsible, fiscally, and bringing our house back in order,” he said. “It doesn’t solve all of our problems, but it gets us on the right path. And this gets us to the negotiating table, just as government and America expects us to do so.”
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.