McCarthy tempers expectations on debt limit deal: ‘Won’t solve all the problems’
Ryan King
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appeared to temper expectations for conservatives as the speaker negotiates spending cuts with the White House in order to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
“One thing I will tell people is this still won’t solve all the problems. The president took a lot of things off the table, but this will put us in the first step,” McCarthy told Fox News. “Whatever we don’t achieve here, we’ll come back the next day to get it because we’ve got to start working towards being able to balance the budget.”
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McCarthy said on Thursday that negotiators worked “well past midnight last night” and made “progress” but stressed that “we still have a number of items that need to get through” without divulging more specifics.
The speaker and President Joe Biden have come under intense pressure from hard-liners in their parties.
On Thursday, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) warned that he planned on having “blunt conversations” with members of leadership over his concerns a deal would only amount to a “modest reduction” in federal expenditures.
Roy is far from alone. Last week, the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative bloc, called on debt limit talks to be suspended “until the Senate passes” the GOP’s Limit, Save, Grow Act, which Democrats rejected as a nonstarter.
In the upper chamber, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) threatened to deploy “every procedural tool at my disposal” to “impede” in the Senate a deal that lacked sufficient spending cuts.
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“It’s very difficult for the Democrats to agree not to spend more next year than they spent this year. They’ve increased spending so drastically. To try to change that course is very difficult,” McCarthy said of his negotiations with the White House.
McCarthy barely clinched the gavel earlier this year following a historically rare 15 rounds of voting, illustrating the deep divisions within the House GOP caucus. As part of his speakership election, he agreed to pursue deep spending cuts to rein in the country’s annual deficits.
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen projected that the government could be unable to pay all its bills as early as June 1, a deadline some Republicans have questioned. McCarthy was adamant the United States won’t default, emphasizing that the government earns enough revenue to cover its interest payments.
“I’m not so fearful of a default. There’s also money coming in every single day. But I will take whatever date they give me, and I will work with it,” McCarthy added, alluding to the possibility of prioritizing payments to avert default.