Rep. Scott Perry (R-FL) said during a press conference call Sunday that “heads need to roll” over the Biden administration’s lie that the Republican debt ceiling plan would cut veterans’ care.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) hosted a conference call with Republican veteran lawmakers as Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough warned that the House-passed debt ceiling bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, could harm the alleged progress the Biden administration has made on expanding veteran care.
“If they go forward with it, there’s a real chance that we could see a reduction of 30 million outpatient visits for veterans, as many as 81,000 jobs cut in the Veterans Health Administration. That’s a very real impact on veterans who rely on VA for their health care,” McDonough said this week.
House Republicans swiftly denounced McDonough’s assertion that the Limit, Save, Grow Act could harm veterans. Rep. Scott Perry (R-FL), the House Freedom Caucus chairman and a veteran, said that the bill does not do anything to cut Social Security, Medicare, or funding to veterans.
Denis McDonough speaks during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Capitol Hill, in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool Photo via AP)
“If they’ve got time to divert this much and resources away from veterans care to lie about it, obviously they’re not focused on our heroes,” the Pennsylvania conservative said. “It is completely wholly unacceptable and heads need to roll for it.”
Davidson, a former officer in the United States Army, told Breitbart News that he believes that Democrats want to continue lying about the Republican debt ceiling bill to avoid defending Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):
They want to avoid the topic. I mean, they’re doing everything they can to try to defend Joe Biden’s indefensible position, that it’s going to be a clean debt ceiling. House Republicans, led by Speaker McCarthy, have been very clear. It’s not going to be a clean debt ceiling. We’ve made a very clear and bold counteroffer. They said we couldn’t do it. We held our Republicans together and we presented something that they don’t want to deal with. So they’re trying to change the subject. I’d like to see him take a recorded vote rather than avoid the subject.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), a veteran who served in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said, “You have a scenario where this administration is avoiding negotiating with Speaker McCarthy avoiding negotiating with Republicans because all they want is a clean debt ceiling, lift without cuts and spending.”
He continued, “We have to cut spending in order to rein in the debt ceiling and the deficit that we’ve been funding as a government, but I want to make it very clear that none of that’s going to be on military spending. And none of that’s going to be on veterans spending. And again, you have a complete mess of misrepresentations by the Democrats, because they don’t have anything else to offer other than the lie about what Republicans are doing.”
Steube and Davidson’s assertion that Democrats want to avoid defending Biden’s position follows as more Democrats have urged Biden to negotiate with McCarthy on the looming debt ceiling deadline.
Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) called on Biden to negotiate.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.