White House slams McCarthy’s last-minute debt limit concessions: ‘Deal with the most extreme MAGA elements’

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Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy
The White House harshly critiqued House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s amendments to his 218-page debt limit package Wednesday morning. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

White House slams McCarthy’s last-minute debt limit concessions: ‘Deal with the most extreme MAGA elements’

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The White House rebuked a last-minute deal by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to win over votes for his debt limit bill on Wednesday morning.

The House GOP legislation would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever comes first, in exchange for spending cuts and represents a bid to force the Biden administration into negotiations on the federal budget.

MCCARTHY MAKES LATE-NIGHT CONCESSIONS ON DEBT CEILING AMID GOP REVOLT

McCarthy previously indicated he would not tweak the plan but relented after a handful of Republicans balked at provisions in the bill. With just four votes to spare in the lower chamber, GOP leadership accepted amendments after midnight on Tuesday in order to win over enough “yea” votes to pass the bill.

Those changes included removing the repeal of biofuel tax credits, important to Midwestern lawmakers; expediting the timeline for new work requirements for entitlement programs such as food stamps; and additional funding cuts to President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt accused McCarthy of cutting “a deal with the most extreme MAGA elements of his party to accelerate taking food assistance from hundreds of thousands of older Americans and to carve out one industry from his draconian cuts without making a single change to provisions that will strip away healthcare services for veterans, cut access to Meals on Wheels, eliminate healthcare coverage for millions of Americans, and ship manufacturing jobs overseas.”

“House Republicans are selling out hard-working Americans in order to defend their top priority: restoring the Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations at a cost of over $3 trillion,” LaBolt said in a statement. “President Biden will never sacrifice opportunity and economic security for working and middle-class families in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations. Budgets are a statement of values — and House Republicans have made clear who they are fighting for.”

Both senior White House officials and Biden himself have resisted McCarthy’s attempts to use the debt limit as a bargaining chip in negotiations over federal spending.

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Instead, Biden has demanded McCarthy and Republicans raise the debt limit before a summer deadline in a bipartisan fashion. Biden’s Office of Management and Budget released a statement Tuesday indicating the president will veto McCarthy’s legislation if it passes both chambers of Congress.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said the bill is “dead on arrival” in the Senate.

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