Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday on Fox News that lawmakers were only able to see a portion of the budget because President Joe Biden allegedly “walled off’ the rest during debt ceiling negations.
The House is slated to vote on the Fiscal Responsibility Act on Wednesday night, which is expected to pass with bipartisan support. The bill would suspend the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025, but does not specify a dollar amount for raising the limit. It also includes work requirements for welfare recipients.
McCarthy said while the proposal isn’t a total solution, it begins to get to the core of the issue.
“This doesn’t solve all the problems, this is the first step,” McCarthy said. “I’m gonna announce a commission coming forward from the Speaker from both sides of the aisle. We only got to look at 11% of the budget to find these cuts. We have to look at the entire budget. Congress has done this before-”
“Why didn’t you see the whole budget?” Faulkner asked.
“Because the president walled off all the others. The majority driver of the budget is mandatory spending, Medicare, Social Security and interest on the debt.”
“So he wouldn’t let you see? Wow,” Faulkner interjected.
“You only have 11% to look at the budget. We were able to increase our defense to protect us, take care of veterans. But you know that non-defense, we’ll spend less than we spent in 2022. That’s a major victory,” McCarthy said, adding that the commission “will look at every single department in America so we can find the waste and we can make the real decisions to really take care of this debt.” (RELATED: Harris Faulkner Grills Kevin McCarthy Over Defecting Republicans)
“I did not know you only got to see a certain part of the budget,” Faulkner said, shocked. “That is actually a travesty that you couldn’t see the whole thing.”
Several Republicans have spoken out against the legislation, such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and South Carolina Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace. More than two dozen Republicans have pledged to oppose the bill, meaning the bill must receive Democratic support to pass.