‘You’re Kind of Proving My Point’: Jake Tapper Presses House Republican on Debt Ceiling Tactics
Jake Tapper pressed Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) over House Republicans’ plans to use their majority to leverage spending cuts ahead of a potential government default.
Earlier this month, the U.S. hit its self-imposed debt limit. In response, the Department of the Treasury initiated “extraordinary measures” to meet the country’s debt obligations. However, these will exhaust around early June, which means Congress and the White House must agree to raise the limit to avert a default for the first time in U.S. history.
Officials say a default would be catastrophic.
President Joe Biden said he will not negotiate spending cuts and hopes Congress will send a “clean” debt limit raise to his desk. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his conference have said they have no intention of doing so.
“Under Trump, a majority of House Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling two out of three times,” Tapper said on Tuesday’s The Lead. “Why this year for Republicans to take this stand, this year when we’re teetering maybe on a recession and people worry that this action – defaulting – could bring about an economic apocalypse?” Tapper asked Stewart.
“Well, Jake, it’s not just this year that Republicans have taken this stand,” Stewart replied. “We’ve used this opportunity of increasing the debt ceiling limit to negotiate and to get some concessions on spending many, many times in the past. And honestly, Jake, I can’t imagine the president saying – and then having to defend to the American people – ‘I’m not even going to talk about it. I’m not going to negotiate a single dollar.'”
“You’re kind of proving my point,” Tapper responded. “You just talked about how you did use this situation to force spending cuts and a discussion on it during the Obama years. But I believe about a quarter of the current national debt was rung up during the Trump years. And I guess my question is, why not take the stand then when you had a guy from your own party in the White House?”
“I actually advocated at the time we did have President Trump in the White House,” Stewart said. “We should be initiating some spending cuts. And honestly, I mean, the former president just wasn’t interested in that. It was one of the things that frustrated some of us who were fiscal conservatives.”
Tapper pointed to remarks from Biden telling Republicans he’s ready to compare budget proposals when House Republicans are.
“So, one of the things Biden is saying is, ‘I’ll show you my budget, you show me your budget,'” Tapper said. “Where is the Republican budget? Do you know which programs under a House Republican budget would face spending cuts when that budget is finalized?”
“Well, I think a lot of things will be on the table,” Stewart answered. “I think there’s some that the speaker has made clear. And that is we’re not going to try to do any reforms in Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. So it’ll be the discretionary side. And it’s gonna take a little time.”
Stewart added he is worried about what appears to be a lack of urgency to avert a potential default in just over four months.
Watch above via CNN.
