(Casey Harper, The Center Square) President Joe Biden blasted the Republicans’ recently unveiled spending plan to raise the debt limit and cut spending, calling it “a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred.”
The Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget released the statement, making clear the president would veto the Republicans’ recently unveiled bill, “The Limit, Save, Grow Act.”
Republicans are rallying votes and moving forward with a markup of the legislation, which would cut federal spending by $4.5 trillion and raise the debt limit by about $1.5 trillion or until March 31, whichever comes first.
As The Center Square previously reported, the bill would implement permitting reforms to formally block Biden’s student loan cancellation, and remove energy and environmental tax credits implemented in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation would also would put work requirements in place for some federal social programs, such as requiring Medicaid recipients to work 80 hours per month.
These measures have been touted by Republicans but were called “extreme” by the White House. Biden has said for weeks that he would not negotiate with Republicans in Congress.
“The President has been clear that he will not accept such attempts at hostage-taking,” OMB said. “House Republicans must take default off the table and address the debt limit without demands and conditions, just as the Congress did three times during the prior Administration.”
For now, it seems Republicans and the president are far apart in negotiations, even with the deadline fast approaching.
“Altogether, this legislation would not only risk default, recession, widespread job loss, and years of higher interest rates, but also make devastating cuts to programs that hard-working Americans and the middle-class count on. The bill would make it easier for wealthy tax cheats to avoid the taxes they owe, even as House Republicans are advancing other proposals that would spend trillions more on tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and big corporations, undoing much or all of the deficit reduction in this legislation.”
