By Brett Rowland (The Center Square)
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that the White House must agree to cuts as part of a debt deal.
“You have to spend less than you did last year,” McCarthy said at a news conference. “That’s not that hard to do, but in Washington that’s kind of a problem.”
McCarthy said he hoped negotiators would make progress, although he described the two sides as “far apart”.
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“I’m sending our negotiating team to the White House to try and complete negotiations with the White House,” McCarthy said. “There are a number of places where we are still far apart.”
The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of debt the U.S. Treasury Department can issue. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has done so repeatedly said lawmakers must raise the debt ceiling by June 1 or risk a default on US debt obligations, but exactly when the US Treasury will run out remains uncertain. In a letter to McCarthy on Monday, Yellen again said the money could run out as early as June 1.
“With an additional week’s worth of information available, I write to note that we estimate that it is highly likely that the Treasury will no longer be able to meet all of the government’s obligations if Congress has not acted to raise or suspend the debt limit by early June, and possibly as early as June 1,” she said wrote.
She noted that things could change: “These estimates are based on currently available data, and federal revenues, expenditures and debts may differ from these estimates. I will continue to update Congress as more information becomes available.”
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House Republicans have passed a bill to cut spending by $4.8 trillion and raise the debt limit by about $1.5 trillion, or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first. The Republican bill would remove energy and environmental tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act and terminate Biden’s student loan. It would also set job requirements for some federal social programs, such as requiring Medicaid recipients to work 80 hours a month.
The Limit, Save, Grow Act would bring total discretionary spending in fiscal year 2024 back to fiscal year 2022 levels and limit annual growth to 1% for 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the measure would reduce budget deficits “by about $4.8 trillion over the 2023-2033 period.”
President Joe Biden has said any deal must have the support of both sides.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.