Even as the current administration’s bloated budget fuels inflation and hurtles the nation’s economy toward a recession, President Joe Biden remains adamant in his demand that Republicans approve a debt ceiling increase without any associated spending cuts.
In light of a White House report confirming that the current debt crisis could have devastating consequences if the two political sides do not reach an agreement, Republicans are lambasting the president for his apparent stubbornness on the issue.
According to the recent White House report, a failure to increase the nation’s debt limit could result in an economic downturn more pronounced than the Great Recession of 2008.
For his part, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) accused Biden of playing “Russian roulette with the country’s finances.”
Speaking at a news conference flanked by other GOP lawmakers on Wednesday, Vance touted the “simple” but “very profound” proposal put forward by his party.
“They’ve advanced a program that pays the country’s debts while putting the country on a more sustainable path financially,” he said. “And what Joe Biden has done is refuse to negotiate from the very beginning.”
Vance acknowledged that the package, which passed in the House along party lines, was not perfect and all of the 217 Republican legislators who supported it “didn’t like at least one thing in the package,” he applauded them for acting on the realization that “paying the country’s debts and doing our job as leadership is more important than any single person.”
Biden has repeatedly indicated that he would only sign a bill that raises the debt ceiling without conditions. Despite agreeing to meet with Republican leaders next week, reports indicate he is still unwilling to back down from his hard-line position.
We should stop calling it a “clean debt ceiling increase.” Passing a debt ceiling increase without any reforms to our nation’s broken finances isn’t clean. It’s dirty as hell.
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) May 3, 2023
In his remarks this week, Vance asserted: “Joe Biden should take a cue from congressional Republicans. Show some leadership. Come to the table. The country needs him to do exactly that.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also participated in the news conference and offered another theory regarding Biden’s reluctance to negotiate a budget deal.
“I’ll say, sadly, the reason he hasn’t so far, I believe, is because his mental faculties are too diminished right now to do what he did in 2011, to sit down and actually work together on a solution to the problems,” he said. “What we’re left with is a bunch of young staffers in the White House, radical children, who are perfectly willing to risk a default on the debt because they have no appreciation of the chaos and misery and damage.”
