Newly elected Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy addressed the debt ceiling limit, urging President Biden to negotiate with a Republican congress.
On Jan. 24, the United States Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen wrote a letter to McCarthy encouraging Congress to raise the debt ceiling. The letter followed a previous letter on Jan. 19 warning of “extraordinary measures to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations.”
“I stand before you not only as the Speaker. I speak to you as a father, a former small business owner, and a taxpayer,” McCarthy said. “Like many of you, I worry about a future that feels less secure than it should.”
The Speaker continued, noting an ongoing crisis of the Biden administrations relaxed border policies claiming the number of illegal immigrants entering the country “exceeds the population of 25 states.”
Cuts to Medicare and Social Security are off the table.
Defaulting on our debt is not an option.
But neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates, and an economy that doesn’t work for working Americans. pic.twitter.com/KhLEEhaNNx
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) February 6, 2023
McCarthy discussed effects of inflation on Americans and Chinese Communist Party infiltration via farmland ownership and surveillance including last week’s discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon flying across the country.
“This is not sustainable,” he said. “But the greatest threat to our future is our national debt.”
McCarthy cited the national debt, which currently amounts to just under $31.5 trillion noting the debt surpasses the American economy by 20 percent.
“Our debt is now a greater burden than it has been at any time since World War II,” McCarthy said, suggesting the country could spend another $8 trillion in interest over the next ten years under it’s current trajectory.
“That is neither affordable or sustainable,” he continued. “When debt is too high, inflation is the result.”
The Speaker of the House further detailed the effects of inflation on average Americans.
“Yes, our nation has taken on debt for most of its history, but the last few years have been different,” McCarthy said. “Washington fell for a financial fad — a fiscal fraud — that the national debt doesn’t matter.”
The Speaker noted an increase in discretionary spending by Democrats in Congress over four years.
“They took our nation’s credit card, spent like crazy and left us in deep debt,” he continued, criticizing Democratic opponents for not accepting responsibility, further noting the largest debt limit increase in American history in 2021.
“Now President Biden wants Congress to raise the debt limit yet again without a single sensible change to how government spends your hard earned money,” the Speaker said. “It’s time for Washington to change it’s behavior.”
McCarthy reiterated Republicans’ intent to curb government spending by citing that a Republican majority won in the 2022 midterm election and encouraged President Biden to negotiate with Congress regarding the debt ceiling. The Speaker concluded by encouraging Biden to negotiate “sensible, responsible solutions” to the increasing national debt.
