Previewing the president’s comments, a White House official said that Biden plans to highlight his recent legislative accomplishments, including the adoption of laws that aim to improve the country’s infrastructure, combat climate change and lower health care costs. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the remarks in advance, said Biden would also note how Democrats’ efforts have created jobs and helped tamp down inflation.
In doing so, the president seeks to draw a contrast with Republicans, highlighting how some party lawmakers have sought to “cut Social Security and Medicare” and target other “programs Americans have earned,” according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who briefed reporters separately on Wednesday.
“We are willing, and the president is willing, to work with Congress in a bipartisan way,” Jean-Pierre said at her daily press briefing. “But he’s also going to call out Republicans, particularly in the House. … The president has said he is going to fight every day to protect those programs that taxpayers pay into.”
For the White House, the speech marks the latest in a series of escalating attacks on House Republicans, who in turn have blamed Biden for what they say is reckless spending that has contributed to the country’s stubbornly high prices. But the war of words between the two parties has taken on greater significance in recent days, threatening to touch off a political showdown over the debt ceiling.
Biden has called on Republicans to raise or suspend the limit without delay, stressing he is unwilling to negotiate over one of the country’s most important fiscal obligations. But Republicans have seized on the issue in pursuit of billions of dollars in spending cuts, arguing the president should come to the table in a time of divided government to strike a deal.
“For President Biden to say we can’t even have that conversation, that’s irresponsible,” charged House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a news conference Wednesday.
The public sniping evinces the widening chasm between the two parties, as Biden prepares to sit down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the coming days. The White House maintains that the scope of the upcoming meeting is broad — and that Republicans should raise the debt ceiling without conditions.
The debt ceiling concerns the money the United States may borrow to pay its existing bills. Both parties have enacted laws that have added to the nation’s debt, totaling more than $31 trillion. That includes ordinary government programs as well as tax cuts adopted under President Donald Trump in 2017, a series of bipartisan coronavirus aid packages and trillions of dollars in spending toward Biden’s economic agenda.
Repeatedly, Republicans voted to suspend the limit under Trump — often with the aid of Democrats who disliked his policies. Yet GOP lawmakers quickly refused to provide similar support once they assumed control of the House this January, demanding instead that the Biden administration come to the table on a broader spending deal.
As a result, the Biden administration this month started taking special budgetary measures to prevent the government from breaching the debt ceiling. But the Treasury Department has warned its efforts may only stave off a default until early June — at which point Congress must act or risk a fiscal calamity that could trigger a recession.
In exchange for their votes, Republicans have signaled they could try to pare back spending to the levels adopted in the 2022 fiscal year. That could result in massive cuts, potentially exceeding $130 billion, predominantly affecting federal health, education, labor and other domestic programs. Others have sought to cap costs for key domestic agencies over the next decade, reprising an approach lawmakers last took in 2011, when an earlier Republican-led standoff over the debt pushed the United States to the fiscal brink.
Appearing at a weekly GOP news conference, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the party’s chief vote counter in the chamber, stressed Wednesday that Republicans “ran and won in 2022 on reining in reckless federal spending,” adding it would be a “grave mistake” if Democrats did not discuss a potential deal.
Scalise, meanwhile, rejected the idea that his party seeks to cut Social Security, arguing that it needs to be “strengthened for seniors who paid into it.” Other GOP lawmakers, however, have called for special panels to explore the finances of federal entitlement programs — and resurfaced policy proposals that could raise the retirement age for younger Americans.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, rallied Wednesday behind their House counterparts — suggesting they, too, would deny Democrats critical votes to raise the debt ceiling without reductions in federal spending. Even a member of Biden’s own party, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), offered renewed support this week for bipartisan negotiations between McCarthy and Biden.
Most Democrats, however, have faulted Republicans for holding the debt ceiling “hostage.” At the party’s own news conference, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he hoped to speak soon with McCarthy, yet he cast early doubt on the GOP’s calls for a deal.
“Until McCarthy has a plan, a plan that can pass the House with Republican support … going to the White House is like going with no cards in his hand,” Schumer said.
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