Democrats to Biden on Debt Ceiling: ‘We’re Going to Have to Negotiate’

Democrats are increasingly fretting about President Joe Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the debt ceiling looms ever closer.

McCarthy and the rest of the Republican leadership unveiled the Limit, Save, Grow Act 0f 2023, a bill that would raise the debt ceiling and cut spending dramatically. Republicans aim to pass the legislation next week to pressure Senate Democrats and Biden to come to the negotiating table.

Biden and Democrats have refused to negotiate with McCarthy, wanting only to pass a clean debt ceiling without spending cuts or other reforms.

Now, Democrats are concerned about the president’s refusal to even negotiate with McCarthy.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is up for reelection in 2024, slammed Biden’s “deficiency of leadership” and praised McCarthy for offering a debt ceiling plan.

House Democrats are saying that the president should speak to McCarthy now that it has been more than 78 days since McCarthy and Biden’s last meeting.

“I respect the White House position. But not in perpetuity. Because negotiation, that’s what this whole institution is about,” Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) explained.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said, “I do think that the president and the speaker should always talk. And Joe Biden has shown over his history that he’s always willing to negotiate.”

“We’re going to have to negotiate. We obviously want to move away from just legislating by crisis … I’m encouraging continued negotiations,” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) argued.

The debt ceiling bill would:

• Rescind unobligated coronavirus aid money
• Block “unfair” student loan giveaways
• Repeal “market distorting green tax credits”
• Repeal the roughly $80 billion in funding to hire 87,000 IRS agents made available thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act
• Implement the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which would curb the regulatory state
• Enact H.R. 1, the Lower Costs Energy Act, a sweeping energy reform bill

Senate conservatives, including Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Rick Scott (R-FL)  applauded McCarthy’s debt ceiling plan:

We congratulate the House Freedom Caucus, Speaker McCarthy, and House Republicans on their framework to fundamentally transform the way Washington works. The broken status quo in Washington has failed and put American families on the hook for more than $31 trillion in debt. The time for accountability is NOW. Inflation is crushing the middle class, Democrats are trying to outlaw the American energy grid while funding elitist, progressive policies against the interests of blue-collar America. This good bill repeals the trillions of dollars in Green New Deal credits that will put Americans out of work, places real work requirements on federal programs that encourage employment, prohibits unfair student loan giveaways, and lifts the bureaucratic stranglehold on American industry by passing the REINS Act. By comprehensively addressing the needs and wants of the American people, this framework goes further to address the tyranny flowing out of Washington than anything we’ve seen in years. It is a courageous first step toward a better and more prosperous America.

The Senate conservatives added, “There is a strong, conservative Republican Party all across America that is demanding action to put our nation back on the path to fiscal sanity.”