More than two weeks after they met at the White House, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says President Joe Biden has not followed up with a promised phone call to continue their discussions about raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
“He hasn’t, and it’s unfortunate, because in America, our whole government, it’s designed that you have to find compromise,” McCarthy told Spectrum News in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
McCarthy’s meeting with Biden on Feb. 1 was their first sit-down on the need to raise the debt ceiling. After the get-together, McCarthy told reporters, “the next step is very clear. We left it that he’ll give me a call in a couple of days to set up the next meeting.”
The U.S. government has until this summer to raise its borrowing limit. If no action is taken, Washington will be unable to pay all its bills, most especially the interest on its debt, creating what the administration calls “an unprecedented and economically catastrophic default.” Earlier Wednesday, a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that absent an agreement, this would occur anywhere from July to September.
Republicans want Biden and the Democrats to agree to spending cuts in exchange for voting to raise the debt ceiling. The White House is saying there should be no conditions attached to lifting the ceiling, saying the country needs to borrow more to pay for debts already incurred under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
McCarthy echoed his oft-used phrase of likening the debt ceiling to “giving your child a credit card – and they charge it all the way up.”
Asked for comment on McCarthy’s remark that Biden has not made a follow-up call, a White House official repeated the president’s position that Republicans agree to a “clean” debt limit increase.
Earlier Wednesday at a speech to union workers in Maryland, the president accused Republicans of using the national debt as a political tool.
“Some of our Republican friends in the House were talking about taking the economy hostage over the full faith and credit of the United States,” Biden said. “They say unless I accept their economic plans, which is totally irresponsible, they’re not going to pay the national debt, which took 200 years to accumulate.”
Biden – who called McCarthy a “decent guy” – pledged that he “will not allow this nation to default,” adding that Congress raised the debt limit three times during the Trump administration.
“If we couldn’t throw the country into a crisis then, why would you want to throw it into a crisis now?” Biden asked. “They’ve got no business playing politics with people’s lives and the full faith and credit of the United States.”
McCarthy was in Bakersfield a day after visiting the world’s largest outdoor agriculture show in nearby Tulare with members of the House Agriculture Committee. They heard from farmers about what should be included in the large and politically important Farm Bill being drafted to fund agriculture and nutrition programs for the next five years.
Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Penn., a McCarthy ally who chairs the committee, told Spectrum News on Tuesday the new Farm Bill should be shielded from spending cuts. But McCarthy on Wednesday declined to make such a pledge.
“Well, oh, God, I look at everything. I want constant improvement,” McCarthy said. “I think you can always find a place we could be more efficient and more accountable and more effective.
‘Someone can earn my endorsement for 2024’
Spectrum News
The interview with McCarthy took place just hours after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley formally kicked off her 2024 White House bid, pitting her against her old boss, former President Donald Trump, in the Republican primary.
“Someone can earn my endorsement for 2024,” McCarthy said, offering no commitment to backing the former president or anyone else. “But look, I just got elected speaker a little more than a month ago. I got a lot of work on my hands, I got the debt ceiling. I’ll probably endorse, but I’ll do it a little later.”
McCarthy developed a close relationship with Trump when Trump was in the White House. Their political alliance extended into January of this year when Trump made phone calls to reticent Republicans to help whip support for McCarthy’s speakership bid.
The pair have been at odds before, including in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attacks. But McCarthy has continuously cultivated the former president’s support and avoids criticizing him publicly, including after white nationalist Nick Fuentes attended a dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November.
