Schumer Accuses ‘MAGA House Republicans’ of Risking Default with Spending Cuts Bill

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) doubled down on his rejection of House Republicans’ debt limit bill Monday, accusing the GOP of risking default and vowing to hold Senate hearings to “expose the true impact” of the legislation.

Schumer wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the Senate would begin examining the bill, which passed in the House last week, in a Budget Committee hearing Thursday.

“This bill was hastily drafted and forced through the House at a break-neck speed,” Schumer wrote, arguing it was not vetted in a House committee the way bills typically are.

“The Senate will show the public what this bill truly is,” he continued. “Beginning this week, our Committees will begin to hold hearings to expose the true impact of this reckless legislation on everyday Americans.”

The Limit, Save, Grow Act, which Democrats have nicknamed the “Default on America Act,” would raise the debt ceiling through early next year in exchange for deep spending reductions.

The bill would block President Joe Biden’s student loan bailout, rescind recent funding to the IRS, repeal climate-related parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, enhance work requirements for welfare recipients, and more. The cuts would save the government an estimated $4.8 trillion over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Biden and Schumer are aiming to cleanly increase the debt limit, that is, raise it without conditions.

The Treasury Department has warned of “economic catastrophe” should the nation reach its borrowing capacity, a scenario that could occur as early as this summer if the House, Senate, and White House do not agree to suspend or raise the limit in time.

Biden has said he will not negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on the matter, while Schumer has vowed that the House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate, despite Schumer offering no viable alternative.

Schumer also warned to his colleagues of “real, dramatic impacts” the bill would have on Americans:

The DOA would gut Medicaid for over 20 million Americans, rip away SNAP benefits for over a million recipients and eliminate Pell grants for tens of thousands of American students every year.

…

The DOA would cut critical funding to nearly all sectors of American life meaning fewer jobs, higher costs, and leaving policemen, first responders, border patrol, and our brave veterans all hanging out to dry.

Schumer claimed, “If anything, the MAGA House Republicans’ actions have increased the likelihood of default. … If Speaker McCarthy was a serious good-faith negotiator, he would not have let extremists take him hostage and move this debate in the wrong direction.”

While many, including McCarthy, admit the Limit, Save, Grow Act will not be the final bill to address the debt ceiling given Schumer’s and Biden’s opposition to it, passage of the bill has ramped up pressure on the Democrat leaders to meet with the speaker to compromise on a deal.

Several Democrats in both the House and Senate have also begun urging the two chambers and Biden to begin talks amid the House GOP successfully uniting around a plan.