House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Thursday the chamber’s Republican Conference is “very close” to reaching an agreement on proposed federal spending cuts.
What You Need To Know
- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Thursday the chamber’s Republican Conference is “very close” to reaching an agreement on proposed federal spending cuts.
- McCarthy made the comments a day after several Republicans shrugged off questions about whether they’d introduce a budget resolution before the April 15 statutory deadline and amid calls from President Joe Biden to do so
- McCarthy did not reveal any details about a potential deal during a news conference at the Capitol
- Biden has refused to negotiate on the debt limit, but says he’s open to holding separate conversations with McCarthy on reducing the deficit and controlling the national debt
McCarthy made the comments a day after several Republicans shrugged off questions about whether they’d introduce a budget resolution before the April 15 statutory deadline and amid calls from President Joe Biden to do so.
McCarthy did not reveal any details about a potential deal during a news conference at the Capitol. The House begins its spring recess Friday and does not return to session until April 17.
Rhetoric between Republicans and the White House over fiscal matters has grown more heated this week.
On Tuesday, McCarthy sent a letter to Biden asking the president to meet with him to negotiate raising the debt ceiling. Republicans are seeking a commitment to cut spending in exchange for lifting the debt cap.
Biden has refused to negotiate on the debt limit, saying Congress should raise it without conditions as it has routinely done under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Biden, however, has said he’s open to holding separate conversations with McCarthy on reducing the deficit and controlling the national debt. But Biden this week, in his own letter in response to McCarthy’s, pressed the speaker for House Republicans’ budget plan.
Earlier this month, Biden unveiled his $6.8 trillion budget proposal, which the White House says will cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years. Biden’s plan hinges on raising taxes on wealthy Americans and ending subsidies for the oil and gas industry, unpopular measures among conservative lawmakers.
Biden wrote that for any conversation on the budget to be productive “we should both tell the American people what we are for.”
“My hope is that House Republicans present the American public with your budget plan before the Congress leaves for Easter recess so that we can have an in-depth conversation when you return,” the president wrote.
McCarthy has said Republicans can cut the deficit by about $4 trillion over the next decade. The White House claims proposals by congressional Republicans – including cutting new IRS funding aimed at thwarting tax evasion, rolling back tax increases on large corporations and extending Trump-era tax cuts – would actually increase the debt by $3 trillion.
At a House Budget Committee hearing Wednesday, Republicans didn’t seem to be in any rush to grant Biden’s wish.
Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, was among those who said raising the debt ceiling was the higher priority.
“We need action on the debt limit immediately because of the state of the fiscal union,” Arrington told reporters, adding a consensus on fiscal controls is needed before moving forward on a budget resolution.
Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., said he doesn’t think the budget has “anything to do with the spending limit.”
“There should be things in the spending limit conversation that are a segue to the budget, but you don’t have to have the budget first,” he said.
Some Republicans blamed Biden for their budget delay, noting the president submitted his proposal a month after the requirement date laid out in the Congressional Budget Act.
McCarthy brushed off Biden’s demand Friday, saying, “A budget resolution doesn’t even go to the president, and a budget resolution doesn’t raise the debt limit,” McCarthy said Thursday.
