Politics

White House Prepares GOP Debt Attacks As Manchin Seeks Deal

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Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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The White House will reportedly seek to portray congressional Republicans’ economic proposals as unfair to the middle class, even as some Democrats are preparing to negotiate a debt ceiling increase.

As part of the intra-party deal that made Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House, Republicans agreed that the Fiscal Year 2024 budget would be frozen at FY2022 levels. Such a freeze would require lawmakers to trim as much as $200 billion from the federal budget, and Republicans have already pledged to leave defense spending and entitlements intact. Non-defense discretionary spending made up $772.5 billion of the FY2023 federal budget.

Democrats will argue that the proposed cuts and other economic policies “make inflation worse, protect rich tax cheats, increase the deficit, raise taxes on middle-class families, and cut Social Security and Medicare,” Semafor reported Thursday. House Republicans have already passed legislation to defund 87,000 prospective IRS agents and some members are floating a 30% national sales tax to replace all other federal levies. (RELATED: Here’s How House Republicans Could Actually Cut The Defense Budget)

The White House is refusing to exchange spending cuts for a debt ceiling increase. Democrats are citing debt ceiling raises during the Trump administration and in 2021 that were not accompanied by spending cuts.

“In the past there has been bipartisan cooperation to address the debt ceiling, and that’s how it should be. It should not be used as a political football. That is not how we should be moving forward here,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

Despite the White House’s posturing, Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is willing to negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling. He co-sponsored the TRUST Act, which would create a bipartisan commission to study the federal debt, in 2021 alongside Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 14: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is followed to his car by reporters after participating in a vote at the U.S. Capitol Building on December 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“We have to work together. It’s bipartisan, it’s always been bipartisan as far as the debt ceiling,” the senator said Wednesday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I think what we have to do is realize that we have a problem. We have a debt problem.” (RELATED: ‘We’re In Deep Trouble’: Billionaire Investor Says US Is Spiraling Toward A Debt Crisis)

The TRUST Act, which the senators have not reintroduced, would create rescue committees for the federal government’s endangered trust funds, including Medicare, Social Security, and the Highway Trust Fund. Each committee would have twelve members and propose legislation receiving expedited votes in both chambers of Congress.

Social Security’s trust fund will become insolvent by 2033, according to the Congressional Budget Office, meaning that retirees will not receive full benefits. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget expects the Highway Trust Fund to go insolvent by 2027.

“We’re not getting rid of anything, and you can’t scare the bejesus out of people saying we’re going to get rid of Social Security, we’re going to privatize. That’s not going to happen,” Manchin added. “But we should be able to solidify it, so the people who have worked and earned it know they’re going to get it.”

The U.S. Treasury began taking extraordinary measures to avoid defaulting on the federal debt on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has estimated that the government will go over the fiscal cliff some time in June or July.