This past Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and President Joe Biden became the target of heavy criticism from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who accused them of not even attempting to get rid of waste hidden throughout the massive omnibus bill from the Democrats.
McCarthy issued these statements while speaking on CBS News’s “Face The Nation” alongside the show’s host Margaret Brennan where they discussed increasing the debt ceiling.
“The responsible thing to do is sit down like two adults and start having that discussion,” stated McCarthy. “What has happened with the debt limit is you reached your credit card limit. Should we just continue to raise the limit? Or should we look at what we’re spending?”
When Brennan made the claim that it was just about the paying off of previous commitments, McCarthy fired back, “No, no. Chuck Schumer never passed a budget since he’s been leading. He’s never passed an appropriation bill. Those are the most basic things that Congress should do.”
“The only person who is getting in the way right now, is the president and Schumer,” stated McCarthy. “They won’t even pass a budget. They won’t even negotiate. We have now til June. I want to make sure we have something responsible, something that we can move forward on and something that we can balance our debt with.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been asking for,” he went on. “The only one who’s playing with the markets right now is the president to have the idea that he wouldn’t talk. Did the president really believe and really all your viewers, do you believe there’s no waste in government? Do you believe there was no waste in that $1.7 trillion? That’s what we were spending just four weeks ago. So I think the rational position here is sit down, eliminate the waste and put us on a path to balance.”
"We're not going to default," @SpeakerMcCarthy tells @margbrennan when asked if he will guarantee that the U.S. does not default on his watch, but McCarthy does not indicate whether he supports a short-term debt limit extension to September. pic.twitter.com/iIWLKJxJMl
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 29, 2023
