On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions on whether President Joe Biden would support stricter work requirements as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling by stating that work requirements for some programs are already the law and Biden supported them, but Republicans “want to cut health care, they want to increase poverty” with their proposals “and it’s not going to save much money.”
Co-host Kaitlan Collins asked, “I know the White House has said initially they were not going to negotiate on this. But, of course, these negotiations are now happening behind the scenes. It seems there’s some agreement on the caps of the spending, the undesignated COVID funds. But when it comes to the stricter work requirements that Republicans say they want to be part of this, is that something that the White House is open to doing?”
Jean-Pierre answered, “So, look — and here’s the reality of this, here are the facts of Republican proposals: They want to cut health care, they want to increase poverty, and it’s not going to save much money. And these are the same proposals that they had tried to pass when there was a unified Republican government, if you will, and they couldn’t get it done then. And so, look, not going to negotiate from here. The President is hoping and is optimistic that there will be a responsible, bipartisan budget that would be on his desk that we can move forward with.”
Collins then said, “I understand you say you’re not going to negotiate from here, but this is an important point, because, over the weekend, the President spoke publicly about this. He seemed open to potentially agreeing to something on this. We heard House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) say yesterday he feels it’s a red line. But then we have Democrats saying that they believe it’s ridiculous that that would be at the center of the negotiations. That’s what Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is saying he would have a very hard time voting for something that has work requirements. So, I do think it’s important to [know] whether or not stricter work requirements are on the table here.”
Jean-Pierre responded, “Well, look, when it comes to SNAP and other programs like that, the work requirements have been the law since 1980, something that the President voted [for] when he was a senator. So, that has been in place for some time. It has been law. And I just stated, I just laid out what the Republican’s proposals are, which is an increase in poverty, which is — the proposal doesn’t actually doesn’t save much money, and taking away health care from millions of Americans. That is something that the President is not for. Look, we’re going to continue to work towards a bipartisan, reasonable budget that the President — that can get to the President’s desk that he can sign. That’s what his team is working toward. That’s the conversation that he’s had with congressional leaders. And also, holding the line very firmly on what Congress needs to do, which is increase the debt limit. We’ve been very clear about that. The President has been very clear about that. We’re not a deadbeat nation. This is something that is the Congress’ constitutional duty that has been done 78 times since 1960.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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