White House: We Won’t Say Fiscal Path Is Unsustainable, But It Could Be ‘Better’

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” White House National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti responded to a question on whether the White House believes we are on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory by stating that President Joe Biden “recognizes that we can get onto a better fiscal trajectory.”

Host Jake Tapper asked, “So, let’s take a step back for a second and just talk about the debt, not about the debt ceiling bill, but about the debt. The national debt, what the U.S. owes others, is nearly $32 trillion. The U.S. government last year spent $475 billion just on the interest, money that would no doubt be better spent on, I’m sure you can think of a dozen things, health care, education. Do you agree with the premise that the current path that the U.S. government is on is unsustainable?”

Ramamurti responded, “Well, what I would say is that the President recognizes that we can get onto a better fiscal trajectory. Which is why his budget — which he proposed in March — cuts the deficit by $3 trillion over ten years. And it does so, not by taking a hammer to veterans’ medical care, not by taking a hammer to Pell Grants and to education programs, but by cutting wasteful spending like on oil and gas subsidies, like on prescription drugs, and by putting in place some new taxes on the very wealthy and on big corporations to ensure that they pay their fair share. So, this is a conversation we are perfectly willing to have with Republicans at any time about our two different visions for how we get on a better fiscal trajectory. But, again, what we can’t do is have the Republicans take our economy hostage against the threat of default in order to jam through cuts that will be harmful to our economy.”

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