‘McCarthy Is a Mess’: AOC Says Negotiating With Republicans Over Debt Ceiling Like ‘Trying to Nail Jello to a Tree’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tore into House Republicans this week with some ribbing language about their negotiating style while taking questions on Instagram.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has over 8.6 million followers on Instagram, was answering followers’ questions in Instagram stories on Thursday evening. One of her followers asked, “What’s up with the federal budget? Should House Dems negotiate with McCarthy et al?”
Ocasio-Cortez responded, “In my view, definitely not but even if you wanted to negotiate, Republicans are too much of a mess right now to do so.”
“They keep saying they want to “cut spending” but everything they want to cut (SNAP, healthcare, etc) is way too unpopular to do so, so they keep changing and scrambling,” she continued, adding:
And they don’t want to cut their own tax cuts for the rich (which is a major driver of the deficit). Republicans can’t even get their own party behind one plan, let alone both parties. Negotiating with that is like trying to nail jello to a tree. What is there to even negotiate?
McCarthy is a mess. Which of course is how this whole thing started. The situation is very concerning honestly because mess or not the GOP was elected to govern and they really cannot. The dynamic could shift with outside political pressure to NOT cut essential safety net services. It’s already starting to work. If you’re in NY we have swing seat GOP members.
LIGHT UP THEIR PHONES TELL THEM NO CUTS
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) finally offered his proposal on Wednesday to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for $4.5 trillion in federal spending cuts. President Joe Biden has called for McCarthy to offer a budget proposal to begin negotiations.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday that McCarthy currently does not have the GOP votes to pass his debt ceiling proposal, but promised McCarthy would get there – underscoring Ocasio-Cortez’s point.
