House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) defended the Republican proposal to lift the debt ceiling temporarily while instituting spending cuts even as lawmakers from both parties reacted to the plan during press interviews on April 20.
Despite vigorous disagreements about the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, several members of Congress voiced the need for honest negotiations that would settle differences openly and produce results for the people.
“It’s a very reasonable plan. It’s a very necessary plan,” Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) told NTD, sister media to The Epoch Times, on April 20. “We’ve got to pay the nation’s debts, but we also need a structure moving forward so people know that we’re serious about reining in what we believe is excessive spending.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), bristled at the idea of being forced to accept a plan under the threat of damage to the economy.
“During the Donald Trump presidency, the debt ceiling was raised three times and nobody noticed because the Republicans didn’t want to harm the president,” Himes said.
“They want to harm this president, so they’re gonna say, ‘Unless you do what we want, we’re gonna blow up the global economy.’ That’s all that’s happening right now. I’m happy to have a debate with you about whether you want to cut off food stamps to hungry children, but we’re not going to do it because if we don’t do it, you’re gonna blow up the economy,” he said.
McCarthy, when asked about debt limit increases under President Trump, said that comparison is based on a misunderstanding.
“I think there’s a misconception with all of you because I was actually in the room,” McCarthy told NTD. “That debt ceiling didn’t get raised without negotiations. The difference is the Democrats wouldn’t raise the debt ceiling until President Trump agreed to spend more money.”
That led to increased spending, which accelerated when President Joe Biden took office, McCarthy said. The result was an additional $6 trillion in national debt and runaway inflation.
“So what we’re simply trying to do is exactly what everybody else has done all these times, to sit down and negotiate just as you have to do at your own kitchen table, and just to explain it to the American public,” McCarthy said.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) decried the GOP plan as a dangerous ploy.
“It’s not a real plan. It’s Kabuki, and we’re playing high stakes with people’s lives,” she told NTD, referring to proposed cuts in social programs like Medicare and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“I think their plan is very political and also credibly pernicious. To have it for a short term so that we have to relitigate right before elections strikes me as something that’s all about politics rather than the American people,” Kamlager-Dove said.
McCarthy brushed off the notion that the GOP proposal would be a temporary solution. Pointing to the Republican bill to prevent proposed changes to the Washington, D.C., criminal code, which many believed would fail, the speaker said, “You know what? It passed the Senate, and the president signed it.
“Every poll will show you Americans do not want you just to lift the debt ceiling and continue to have inflation,” McCarthy said. “They want us to pass the exact bill that we’re doing.”
Though undecided about the Limit, Save, Grow Act, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) is adamant that Congress must stop acting based on fear of special interest groups and negotiate solutions that benefit the people.
“We have to have a proposal of some kind because the country is going to hell,” Spartz told NTD.
“Let’s think about the numbers. Four trillion dollars goes to mandatory spending. We don’t even vote. We break even on mandatory spending, and 100 percent of the rest of the spending is debt,” she said. “I think it’s important for us to move the needle on real ticket items, and I hope that we can get something done for the people.”
As for disagreements within Congress and within the Republican party, Spartz believes that shows independent thinking, which is healthy.
“We don’t have kings and queens. We’re independent legislators, and we have to be able to deliberate and have an input. I think a top-down approach to the party is actually unhealthy,” she said.
“If we’re not having the backbone to challenge special interest groups because they control people here, then we should stay home.”
