McCarthy Rejects Any Short-Term Debt Limit Deal: 'Get This Done Now'

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday rejected any short-term debt limit deal with President Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.

Hours before meeting with Biden and congressional leaders at the White House, McCarthy told NBC News that any posturing by the Democrats to design a short-term deal to raise the debt limit before government funding runs out is off the table.

“We shouldn’t kick the vote. Let’s just get this done now,” he said.

Last month, House Republicans passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling and cut wasteful government spending. But Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has refused to hold a Senate vote on the bill, while the White House has claimed it will not negotiate on raising the debt limit.

“There shouldn’t be negotiations on the debt limit,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a White House press briefing Monday. “We should not have House Republicans manufacturing a crisis.”

Pressure is mounting on Biden and the Democrat Party ahead of Tuesday’s summit. In the meeting, Biden is expected to make clear the Republican bill would cut too much wasteful spending — nearly 14 percent over a decade. His refusal to negotiate on the Republican bill leaves Democrats, not Republicans, seen as driving the nation over a fiscal cliff.

In 2011, Biden championed debt ceiling negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, in contrast to his current position. In fact, Biden played a key role during the Obama administration in negotiating a debt limit increase with the “Tea Party.”

“I have had the great honor of spending hours and hours and hours with you, covering my negotiating the debt limit and other things with the leaders of the Republican Party,” Biden boasted in 2012 to NBC News.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.