White House Shuns McCarthy's Call For Talks On Debt Limit

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called on President Joe Biden and Democrats to negotiate with Republicans in cutting federal spending as part of raising the nation’s borrowing limit.

Photo Insert: House Majority Leader Speaker Kevin McCarthy during a meeting with new Twitter CEO Elon Musk

“Our national debt is high, too high, and the problem is getting worse, not better,” he said, Janet H. Cho reported for Barron's Daily newsletter.

The government reached its $31.4 trillion debt limit in January and needs to raise it by early June to avoid a default. “Mr. President, it’s time to get to work,” McCarthy said ahead of the State of the Union address. But cutting Medicare and Social Security is “off the table.”

Democrats want to raise the debt limit without conditions.

Biden and the Democrats said the deficit racked up under Republican administrations, and that former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts added to it, while Biden’s legislative programs have reduced the deficit. Trump borrowed $8-trillion in four sorry years of his administration

McCarthy noted that as a senator, Biden voted against raising the debt ceiling and said that negotiating is a part of governing. The White House retorted that McCarthy voted three times to lift the debt ceiling under Trump’s administration without any spending cuts.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told ABC News earlier Monday that every responsible member of Congress must agree to raise the debt ceiling,” she told Good Morning America.

“It’s something that simply can’t be negotiable.” President Joe Biden is expected to urge quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks.

He also plans to call for a billionaire minimum income tax (which would levy a 20% minimum rate on US households with net wealth of more than $100 million) and push to expand the $35-a-month price cap on insulin to all users, not just those on Medicare.

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