‘This Is Made Up Drama!’ Biden Budget Chief Draws Laughs At Briefing By Offering To Write Debt Limit Bill ‘In 5 Minutes!’

White House Budget Director Shalanda Young drew laughs as she lampooned Republicans for not raising the debt limit, offering to write the bill herself in rapid fashion.

President Joe Biden and his administration have been consistent in refusing to allow the debt limit to be “held hostage” by Republicans to force negotiations over the budget. But as the deadline approaches, a meeting has been set for May 9 at the White House between Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, and the White House continues to put pressure on Republicans to raise the debt limit without extracting concessions under threat of a catastrophic default.

To that end, Director Young took questions at Thursday’s press briefing and again put the onus on Republicans, while also not explicitly taking remedies like invoking the 14th amendment — essentially ignoring the debt ceiling as unconstitutional — off the table:

KRISTEN WELKER: Director, thank you for being here. You said that nothing’s off the table. Does that apply to the President invoking the 14th Amendment if that is necessary, if this comes down to the wire?

MS. YOUNG: Oh, well, let me be very clear: Congress needs to do its job. Tomorrow, they could put a bill on the floor to make sure we don’t default. This is of people’s own making.

I could probably write the bill for them in five minutes! It’s pretty easy. (Laughter.)

And we need to, like, keep reminding ourselves this is — this is — this made up. This is made up drama! And we believe that just as they did three times for the last President, hundreds of times in the history of this country, that it is Congress’s duty to ensure we don’t default.

KRISTEN WELKER: And yet, at this point, no one is blinking. So if we get to May 30th and there’s still no deal, would the President entertain the possibility of invoking the 14th Amendment?

MS. YOUNG: We continue to have the position that this is Congress’s duty to do.

KRISTEN WELKER: So it’s not off the table?

MS. YOUNG: It is Congress’s duty to do, and we will continue to say that.

KRISTEN WELKER: Let me just ask you about Avril Haines. She told a Senate panel today that almost certainly China and Russia would use a default to demonstrate chaos in the United States. Do you agree with that assessment? And how broad would this disaster be — would it be for the U.S. to default?

MS. YOUNG: I have the utmost respect for the DNI, and I couldn’t agree with her more.

This — this is — this just gives to our global competitor. They love this. They love to see chaos in the American system. They love to see that we can’t do our basic jobs. It’s no less than a test of what works in this world. Does democracy still work or does the Chinese way work?

And things like this, we have to step up to the plate and do what’s right for the American people, because it’s no less than what the DNI has — has laid out.

And, by the way, some of these cuts — and I know people want to take defense off the table — what about our research? What about manufacturing? In all the progress we made in bringing manufacturing back to this country, why would we, at this moment in time, with the progress we’ve seen in unemployment, manufacturing jobs, making it in America — why would we do anything in this country to not only halt but reverse that with having a made-up fight that could be ended tomorrow?

Watch above via C-SPAN.