The White House is calling the hypocrisy of Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans, who voted to raise the debt limit three times under Trump without any spending cuts.
Transcript of Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton’s press gaggle with reporters on Air Force One as provided to PoliticusUSA by the White House:
Q On debt ceiling. Two questions on debt ceiling. Does the White House have any response to Senator Joe Manchin’s ideas for a debt ceiling deal with the GOP?
M.S. DALTON: Look, I’ll make some broad comments about this first. I think, you know, as I mentioned a moment ago, tomorrow marks two years since the president took office and his leadership has been delivering results on the economy. We are growing the economy from the bottom and middle. We are reducing inflation. We are creating jobs with historically low unemployment. And we think Republicans should welcome that news and work with us on how to build on it, not roll back it.
That means Congress must resolve the debt ceiling without conditions. Our stand on this has not changed. There will be no talk of debt ceiling.
Again, Congress must address this unconditionally with bipartisan support three times under Donald Trump.
I want to note that Kevin McCarthy himself has voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under Trump without any spending cuts, and there is no reason to change this position.
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House Republicans and Kevin McCarthy seem to care about spending cuts only when they are in the Democratic White House. McCarthy doesn’t want people to realize that House Republicans are being hypocritical because the debt ceiling is a huge opportunity for the House GOP this year to try to extort spending cuts from Biden and Democrats.
The White House and Democrats can afford to take a hard line because they know they will win. Republicans will get the blame if the nation defaults, as the House GOP position has been undermined by their previous hypocrisy on spending cuts.
Jason is the managing editor. He is a member of the White House Press Pool and a Congressional Correspondent for PoliticoUSA. Jason holds a Masters in Political Science. Her graduate work focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
