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‘It Wasn’t A Serious Budget’: CNBC Host Throws Cold Water On Dem Rep Praising Biden’s Proposal

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Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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CNBC’s Joe Kernen pushed back Tuesday against Democratic New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries after the House minority leader praised President Joe Biden’s budget proposal.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said Monday that Republicans would raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default if the new budget would cut spending and drop several of Biden’s policy goals, according to Reuters.

“There are times where – I mean, some of these things, I think, almost anyone on either side of the aisle would say, ‘Yeah, I can live with that,'” Kernen said during the segment with Jeffries. “And if it gives us the opportunity to, you know, just, by accident, actually do something good in the debt ceiling negotiation, I don’t know why you can’t at least – maybe President Biden should show the leadership to just enter into negotiation, as he said he would 75 days ago and hasn’t,” Kernen said.

“President Biden has shown extraordinary leadership,” Jeffries said. “He produced a budget. He produced a budget over a year ago. It’s in the public domain. The American people can evaluate it.”

“It wasn’t a serious budget,” Kernen interrupted.

“No, no, Joe, it’s a serious budget that will do several things,” Jeffries pushed back. “One, it will protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. The American people care about that issue. That’s a serious proposal. It will invest in building an economy that works for everyday Americans from the middle out and the ground up, continuing to drive down–” (RELATED: Biden Budget Requests $500 Million For Two Years Of Free Community College)

“I just meant that it’s not going to go anywhere,” Kernen interjected. “That’s all I meant. It doesn’t have a chance of passing the House. That’s the thing.”

“President Biden’s budget also reduces the deficit by over $3 trillion,” Jeffries said. “We don’t have that Republican budget to even have a conversation about, Joe. And that’s the problem.”

“That’s the two sides in a nutshell. There’s a lot of tax increases that aren’t going to fly with Republicans. I don’t see how, when both sides are so intractable and entrenched, that it just – we’re out here just thinking, ‘How is this ever going to fix itself?'” Kernen said before closing out the segment.

Biden proposed a budget in March that included tax hikes on the the wealthy while proposing to expand Medicare, claiming his budget would help slash deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.