“We’ve got to change the way we are spending money wastefully in this country,” McCarthy said. “And we’re going to make sure that happens.”
McCarthy, asked a follow-up question, said a budget caps deal may not be Republicans’ demand on the debt limit. He said he was just laying out what happened the last time a divided government negotiated on the issue.
The Treasury Department is expected to announce soon that it is running up against the $31.4 trillion statutory debt limit. As of Tuesday, it was just $59 billion away. But Treasury can dip into its tool chest of “extraordinary measures” to stay under the limit, likely buying lawmakers several months of time before they need to act.
McCarthy, however, said he wants to get negotiating with President Joe Biden on the matter before the deadline comes due.
“I had a very good conversation with the president when he called me,” McCarthy said, referring to a congratulatory call Biden placed to him after he was elected speaker. “And I told him I’d like to sit down with him early and work through these challenges.”
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