Democrats bash McCarthy over spending demands in debt ceiling talks: ‘hypocrite’
House Democrats are slamming Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) this week after he demanded steep spending cuts as part of negotiations with President Biden to lift the debt limit.
They’re pointing to the trillions of dollars piled onto the debt under Republican administrations, wondering aloud why GOP leaders didn’t prioritize cuts when they had the power to do so.
“These people are such hypocrites,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Tuesday morning. “They don’t care about the deficit; they don’t care about debt. Every Republican president has increased the deficit, but the thing is, what have they used it for? They’ve used it to give tax cuts to the wealthiest.”
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“If he’s going to be serious on those parameters, he needs to tell us exactly what he’s going to cut,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). “Because if you’re taking defense and Social Security and Medicare off the table, you’re going to have to go very, very deep into those remaining parts of the budget. And I doubt that Mr. McCarthy or anyone else would have the stomach to actually reveal the specific cuts that that would entail.”
“This is theater,” Huffman added. “He’s trying to get us to negotiate against ourselves.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), senior Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is already sounding similar warnings about the effects such cuts would have on the nondefense discretionary budget, which includes countless federal programs, from NASA and the national parks to public health and veterans benefits.
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By: Mike Lillis
Source: The Hill
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