Speaker McCarthy Has Direct Message To Biden After His Debt Limit Bill Passes House Transcript

The House Republicans just passed the only bill in Washington that lifts the debt limit, ends wasteful Washington spending, and puts America back on the right economic path, that we’re going to limit the growth in the future, we’re going to save by pulling back this unspent COVID money. We’re going to grow this economy by making us energy independent again and getting more people encouraging them back to work.

(00:33)
The sad part here is now the Democrats need to do their job. The president can no longer ignore by not negotiating. Senator Schumer, if he thinks he’s got a plan, put it on the floor. See if you can pass it and then we can go to conference. But now, the president can no longer put this economy in jeopardy.

(00:53)
We lifted the debt limit. We’ve sent it to the Senate. We’ve done our job, the only body in here that’s done theirs. The Senate, I got to give them credit, they did name March Maple Syrup Month and they have thanked UConn and congratulated them for their basketball win. But they’ve done nothing when it comes to the economy or the debt limit.

Speaker McCarthy?

Yes.

When it does go to the Senate ultimately and they inevitably make changes, this was already a very tight vote for your conference. How are you going to keep everyone on board when it seems like even minor tweaks could mean someone falls off?

That’s so interesting because all your questions before is how could I ever pass the bill? All your questions before says we never could. We were the only body that passed anything. Why do you assume the Senate can pass anything? Because I haven’t seen them do anything.

(01:40)
So right now, this is the only place that has lifted the debt limit. So the Democrats are putting the country in jeopardy. The President, by ignoring to even negotiate. The majority of Americans overwhelmingly want us to sit down and negotiate to make sure we end our dependency on China, to stop the inflation the Democrats created by spending $6 trillion. No one in America believes there’s not one place that you can’t find a place that you could have savings in what Washington spends. And I think it’s up to them now.

What will you do now in order to bring President Biden to the field besides passing [inaudible 00:02:19]?

I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. We’ve done our job. I’ve sat down with the president on February 1st. He ignored the rest of the time. He treats it just like the border. He wants to ignore it and thinks it goes away. That doesn’t work in America. He’s putting the American economy in jeopardy by his lack of action.

(02:38)
Now he should sit down and negotiate. We passed this early. We are in April, way ahead of the debt limit. We are the only party to take fiscal action in a sound mind that would lift the debt limit so we wouldn’t have economic damage. We’ve also put us back on a path to end the Washington wasteful spending and to grow our economy and make us stronger.

Speaker McCarthy, Hi. Thank you. Jackson Richman with The Epoch Times. If there isn’t a long term agreement on the debt ceiling increase, would you and House Republicans be open to like a week or weeks long or months long extension?

We just passed the bill. It’s not our job to modify it. The Senate could pass our bill or send us something that they have and we’ll go to conference. Otherwise, we’ve done our job. We’re the only ones to lift the debt limit to make sure this economy is not in jeopardy.

Speaker McCarthy, on President Biden, at this point, has there been any progress at all on any potential meeting? Is your staff talking to his staff at this point? Is there any communication?

No. No. The president has ignored every opportunity to communicate after sitting down with him. Even though he told the Democratic conference when he was at their retreat that he was going to meet with me, he has not. Which is so odd because all the times in the past he argued against people who wouldn’t negotiate. As vice president, he put the Biden team together to negotiate on the debt limit.

(04:00)
The Democrats have done this every time. When President Trump was there, Nancy Pelosi said you cannot pass a debt limit without having negotiations on spending. This is how it’s happened all the time before. The Senator at the time, as Senator Biden, he voted four times to raise the debt limit if they did something on the fiscal end. Then the four times that he voted against it, he only voted against it based upon thinking the economic changes didn’t go far enough.

(04:28)
So what’s changed, Mr. President? You’ve gone so far as you won’t even negotiate to put America in debt. That’s not how the leader of the free world should act. That’s not how America wants you to act. You said at the very beginning we had to show you a plan, even though the Democrats have shown known plan. Not only did we show you a plan, we’re the only ones to pass a plan.

(04:48)
So I think it’s up to you now whether the economy goes in any trouble, it’s you, because the Republicans raised the debt limit, you have not, neither has Schumer.

Speaker McCarthy, some of the House Freedom Caucus members who voted to support this bill, [inaudible 00:05:04], Bush, they said that they support it but if the Senate sends back a revised version they want you to fight and stand your ground.

Exactly right.

Can you promise them that you won’t accept a watered down version?

I don’t have to promise you. I promised the American public from the very beginning. We promised them that we would end our dependency on China. So not only did we create a select committee on China, we just passed a bill to make America stronger and China weaker.

(05:27)
We said we would curve inflation that the Democrats created. How do you do that? Milton Friedman, one of the greatest economists of all time, says inflation has only started through Washington spending. That’s what the Democrats did, harmed every single American.

(05:41)
We eliminate wasteful Washington spending to curve inflation. We said we would grow the economy, to make us energy independent, to actually cut the red tape so we could build things in America again. We passed HR1, we put it in here as well.

(05:54)
So we limit the future spending of Washington, the growth. The President makes some audacious, crazy comments about it and all we’re saying is we should spend exactly what we spent four months ago. This president wants to spend more money than we spent during COVID. This president thinks even though he would sign the bill of the pandemic that it’s over, that they should keep the billions of dollars sitting out there that has not been spent that sat there for two years over COVID.

(06:22)
You know what? That’s not the president’s money. That’s the American hardworking taxpayer money and we should pull it back and save them money because it wasn’t spent.

Speaker McCarthy?

Yes, ma’am.

Since this is the first big test, big vote of your speakership, obviously you started off in a not ideal way, how far do you think the conference has come and what does today mean for you personally?

That’s your opinion. I don’t think this is the first big significant vote. I think every single week you have raised that same question with me. You raised the question whether I could even become speaker. We went 15 rounds, we came speaker.

(06:54)
Then you raised the question, could we even pass 87,000 IRS agents and yank them out and we did it. You raised the question, if we could make the intel committee back to the place that it should be, that people couldn’t be having relationships with a Chinese spy. We did that.

(07:09)
Then you said, could we stand up for the American public that we said in the Commitment to America, that we would pass the Parents’ Bill of Rights. We passed that. We’ve said when we put forth HR1 that we just stand firm to make our energy independent in America and build our economy. We passed that.

(07:26)
We looked and said when we watched Washington DC decriminalize every form of crime, that we stood up the first time in 30 years of Congress to do that. And you all asked me the same questions. What’s going to happen when the Senate stops it? Well, the Senate didn’t stop it. It passed it.

(07:41)
What’s going to happen when the president said beforehand, why’d you even vote on it because he wasn’t going to sign it? He signed it. When we passed the bill in the pandemic so we could get back to work again, you said, “Why even do it? The senate’s not going to take it up. The president said he’s going to veto it.” It’s law today.

(07:56)
So every question that you continue to raise, you guys have been wrong. You’ve underestimated us. But you know the one place that they haven’t underestimated? The American public. Why? Because those are the people we are working for day in and day out. And just as it took me 15 rounds to win speaker, the one thing I have promised the America public, I will never give up on you.

(08:15)
So what we did today was raise the debt limit, stop the wasteful Washington spending and curve inflation and put us on a path that we can continue.

How did you do it-

Yes ma’am.

You’ve said you want to get to the negotiating table. So this is essentially an opening offer, but are there any areas that are red lines for you as you potentially-

Listen, I sat down with the president February 1st. I want to pass a responsible, sensible debt ceiling that actually curves the growth of government, eliminate the wasteful spending. I told the president we could sit down, no parameters.

(08:50)
The only thing I would tell him is no clean debt ceiling’s going to pass the House. We can’t do that to our children and grandchildren. We’re at $31 trillion of debt. The CBO has said that we’ll pay 10.5 trillion just in interest in the next 10 years. Even though if you look at from 1940 till today, in those 83 years we’ve only spent 9 trillion.

(09:11)
We’ve spent 17% of our taxpayers revenue that’s coming in just on paying interest. That’s a waste. We can do better. And the president said, “Well, I’m not going to talk to him until he offers a plan.” Not only did we offer a plan, we passed it. So for more than 80 days he’s ignored the problem. For more than 80 days, he’s ignored the American public. He either has to negotiate now or we’re the only ones that have raised the debt limit and take our bill.

Mr. Speaker, so I’m wondering, I’m curious as to your thoughts for a long-term solution to this issue. It seems year after year you all have to continuously raise the debt ceiling. I just spoke with Congressman Tom Cole who suggested reforms to Medicaid and Medicare. What would you be open to in terms of a long term solution?

I’ll tell you, we just passed a bill that raises the debt limit, stops Washington spinning and that’s the best start to start out with. And I watched the president, he’s actually hurting Medicare and social security. For the first time in a 10-year window in any president’s life, this president’s going to cut social security and Medicare.

(10:08)
His extreme liberal positions, this fantasy that you can just print more money and it won’t cause damage, that you’ve watched that the CBO for the first time in a 10-year window that three trust funds will go unsolvent. The highway, the highway and transportation, Medicare and social security. So automatically cuts come to us. This is what this president is doing by ignoring this problem. He is hurting America time and again.

Mr. Speaker?

Yes.

Your members have some constituents who aren’t affiliated with either party who think either side negotiating over the debt ceiling is bonkers because it’s so dangerous.

Can you point that out to me where?

Why not negotiate over appropriations for spending that’s not connected to the debt ceiling?

First, let me take the premise of your question. You say that America doesn’t want us to negotiate over the debt ceiling. There’s not one poll that shows the majority of Americans has the opinion that you just quoted.

(11:03)
So, in my belief, you’re totally wrong. It doesn’t matter who quotes it. And if you sit down and you look, even Democrats on the other side of the aisle last week said the president needs to sit down and negotiate. So again, your question and premise is wrong.

(11:15)
More than 70% of Americans thinks we should sit down and negotiate. Every single time, you’ve got a president sitting in office today that believed you need to negotiate when you did a debt ceiling. You had a former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she would not pass a clean debt ceiling without negotiating. Their part was to spend more money. That took us into inflation.

(11:33)
So I don’t know what the premise of your question, if you ever asked it when the Democrats were on the other side. So the real question you should ask is why do you change it now? Why would you go against the American public that wants you to negotiate, to curve inflation, to make us less dependent on China? That’s your real question as it should be.

Mr. Speaker?

Yes.

Several of your members have said that this bill is the furthest they’re willing to compromise in terms of cuts. Are you confident that you can get the votes to pass a compromise debt ceiling increase with the White House?

Not if the president continues to not negotiate, but what I know I’m confident in, one party has taken care of the debt ceiling. We have lifted the debt ceiling so nobody could worry about whether the debt ceiling’s going to get lifted. We did it. The Democrats have not.

(12:20)
The president wants to make sure the debt ceiling’s going to be lifted. Sign this bill. I know of other bills that we passed you say you’re going to veto. At the end of the day, you’ll probably end up signing this one as well.

(12:29)
Thank you all. I hope you have a great day.

Have you heard from any Democrats that are concerned about how Biden’s acting right now?

A lot of them.

A lot.