House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden continued their verbal sparring over who’s ducking whom in scheduling a meeting on the debt ceiling.
The two met to discuss the subject on Feb. 1, a meeting both described as a good start at working together. However, they have not met since as both insist the other must make the first move.
“We have been reasonable and responsible, ask[ing] to sit down with the president for months. He is making the decision that he wants to put the economy in jeopardy,” McCarthy said in a March 30 press conference.
“I don’t know what more I can do and how easy [I can make it]. I would bring the lunch to the White House. I would make it soft food if that’s what he wants,” the speaker said, evoking laughter.
Asked to respond at a press briefing later that day, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre quipped, “I think the President is able to pick out his own Starbucks.”
“What we really need from Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans is to see their budget,“ she said. ”Where’s the budget? They come up with excuses.”
The jabs repeat familiar talking points on both sides. The president insists that Republicans make a concrete budget proposal rather than asking for unspecified spending cuts. The speaker maintains that he is ready and willing to sit down and negotiate at any time.
Both accuse the other of endangering the American economy by not addressing the debt issue.
Two days prior to the verbal exchange, on March 28, McCarthy wrote to Biden asking for a second meeting.
“Mr. President, simply put: you are on the clock. It’s time to drop the partisanship, roll up our sleeves, and find common ground on this urgent challenge,” McCarthy wrote.
“Please have your team reach out to mine by the end of the week to set a date for our next meeting.”
Biden fired a letter back the same day saying there is no point in meeting before Republicans unveil their budget proposal.
“I shared my Budget with the American people on March 9, 2023,” the president wrote.
“My hope is that House Republicans can present the American public with your budget plan before the Congress leaves for the Easter recess so that we can have an in-depth conversation when you return.”
In their March 30 remarks, both McCarthy and Jean-Pierre continued the it’s-your-turn ping pong.
“I just don’t know what’s changed from his [Biden’s] comments before when he said it’s not right if people don’t sit down and meet together,” McCarthy said, apparently referring to Biden’s comments at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2 in which he urged lawmakers to set aside partisanship and find ways to compromise.
Jean-Pierre harked back to previous remarks made by McCarthy.
“The speaker said in January how important it is, and I’ll quote, ‘We [Congress] should have to pass a budget so the country can see the direction we’re going,” Jean-Pierre said.
“What does the speaker want to discuss? What are the specific cuts? What taxes does he want to raise?” she asked. “The president put out his budget on March 9, three weeks, and we have seen nothing from the House Republicans. Nothing.”
The national debt is currently $31.4 trillion dollars, the statutory limit set by Congress. The country would have exceeded that debt on Jan. 19 if not for “extraordinary measures” taken by the U.S. Treasury to avoid further borrowing.
Experts have estimated that those measures will be exhausted by late summer, forcing a financial crisis if Congress does not raise the limit before that time.
