WASHINGTON: US House Republicans and Democrats showed no sign of surrendering their partisan positions after a briefing on the nation’s US$31 trillion debt on Wednesday (Mar 8), the day before President Joe Biden is due to unveil his 2024 spending plan.
Biden said his proposal will cut the nation’s deficit by nearly US$3 trillion over 10 years, though it relies on tax increases to do so while Republicans are pushing for sharp cuts to domestic spending.
The closed-door meeting for House of Representatives members was meant to establish a common set of facts for the debate from the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Phillip Swagel, who has warned the federal debt will surpass the size of the US economy within the next decade if no steps are taken.
“It’s important for members of both parties to get the information and be able to process it together,” said Republican Representative Mike Lawler. “We’re not always going to agree, obviously. But frankly, I think that’s part of the problem in Washington. There’s not enough opportunity to do these things together.”
Republicans hold a majority in the House while Democrats control the Senate.
The White House said Biden’s budget plan is expected to extend the life of the Medicare healthcare plan for Americans age 65 and older, while raising taxes on billionaires and other high-income individuals.
Republicans are expected to follow up by Apr 15, and have been eying US$150 billion in cuts to nondefense discretionary programs for 2024 that would reset spending to fiscal 2022 levels and save US$1.5 trillion over a decade by holding spending increases to an annual 1 per cent.
“It’s my hope that Republicans will release their budget sooner rather than later, so we can have a thoughtful discussion about alternatives,” the top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, said as he emerged from the meeting.
The emergence of the two budgets is seen as the starting gun for negotiations between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden over spending for fiscal 2024, which begins on Sep 1.
The stakes of those talks are elevated this year as the federal government is expected to hit the US$31.4 trillion debt ceiling by summer. Failure to act by that time could trigger a potentially disastrous default.
McCarthy wants Biden to agree to spending cuts before his narrow Republican House majority would agree to raise the debt ceiling. Biden insists that Republicans must agree to a “clean” debt ceiling increase without a preliminary deal on spending.
“We’re at a tipping point,” McCarthy said of the nation’s fiscal position. “Very seldom do we ever get together as members outside the chambers. We do that in classified briefings and … I think this is just as important as any security issue.”
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