Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling plan after McCarthy didn’t have the votes to pass a debt ceiling increase that included spending cuts.
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Schumer’s transcript on ABC’s This Week:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your Democratic colleague, Senator Joe Manchin, says now that you should engage in these kinds of negotiations.
SCHUMER: I will say this. We have a place. We have a clear position. Make it clean. Do it for no reason. Do it without the risk of hostage-taking because, as you know, if we don’t renew the debt ceiling, the average American household will be shut out. Their interest rates will increase. Their pension savings will decrease. A house can cost up to $100,000. So, it is dangerous. Now, McCarthy says he wants to attach some spending cuts to do it. Where is your plan, Mr. McCarthy? They say they want a cut. We ask him which one. He doesn’t say anything. Is it Social Security and Medicare? That hurts the American people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They say it won’t.
Schumer: He says it won’t happen, but a lot of people in his congregation still do. Will it be the police? Could it be the military? Their work – we have a plan. Make it clean like we did four times. Three under Trump, once under Biden. He won’t say what he wants to cut and I’ll tell you why. They cannot pass the plan with cuts. Their right wing begs for deep cuts that their mainstream Republicans won’t vote for, and let me tell you, in my experience, the party that sticks with brinksmanship and says I won’t renew it will do what I want, lose. We are going to win this fight and it will be a clean debt ceiling.
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Democrats already know McCarthy can’t pass debt ceiling increases with cuts, so what happens is a heavy dose of showmanship. McCarthy threatens. He may meet with the White House again, but Democrats have zero reason to give him anything to raise the debt ceiling.
Kevin McCarthy must make it look like he’s trying, but with a House majority by just a few seats, he can’t stop moderates in his caucus from joining with Democrats to force passage of a clean debt ceiling hike.
The debt ceiling is a fight that Speaker McCarthy has already lost.
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