President Joe Biden finally sits down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday to discuss raising the debt limit — for the first time in 100 days.
Does Biden want the government to default on its bills?
His own Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, warns of “economic calamity” in just a few weeks if the ceiling’s not raised.
Yet the prez won’t even consider the (modest) spending slowdown House Republicans OK’d in their bill to boost in the debt limit.
On Friday, he dismissed their plan as a “ridiculous . . . MAGA budget,” preposterously claiming “no one’s ever tied” spending levels to the debt limit before.
In fact, the limit has been part of every deficit-reduction package going back to the Reagan era, and Biden himself as a senator routinely linked the two.
Has he just forgotten?
Worse, when MSNBC’S Stephanie Ruhle suggested he “play ball” with the opposition, as other presidents have, Biden simply burst out laughing.
He also rolled out tired lies: He’s already “cut the debt” (he meant deficit) by $1.7 trillion, “more than anyone’s ever done,” he insisted.
Sorry: The deficit was already set to fall after spiking during the pandemic, yet Biden and fellow Democrats raised it by trillions.
Just since last May, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has ballooned its 10-year projection of federal red ink by $3.1 trillion, or 20%.
It was $928 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, CBO estimated Monday — $568 billion worse than the same period last year
Other top Dems, like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have also dug in their heels.
Republicans are absolutely right to seek cuts; this year’s deficit, running at 5.3% of GDP, is set to climb to 5.8% over the next four years, before exploding to 6.9% from 2028 to 2033, per the CBO.
That’s almost twice the average (3.6%) for the past 50 years.
And it’s clearly too much spending, not too little taxing, that’s digging the hole deeper: Federal outlays have bounced between 17% and 20% of GDP for most of the past half-century; they’re now running at 25%.
The recent spending, by the way, has also ignited painful inflation.
Despite all this, Biden wants to spend still more.
What can Republicans do in the face of such political games?
Offer a one- or two-month hike, paired with some of their longer-term goals — like clawing back unspent COVID funds.
That gives more time to negotiate, while still beginning to reduce the debt.
The president’s apparently unable to face correcting the entire mess he’s created these last two years.
Maybe he can handle the medicine one spoonful at a time?
This story originally appeared on NYPost
