Biden Accuses MAGA House Republicans of ‘Holding the Economy Hostage,’ Accuses GOP of Trying to Cut Key Programs

President Joe Biden traveled to Valhalla, NY, Wednesday, where he accused Republicans of “holding the economy hostage” by threatening to default on the nation’s debt.

In a speech at SUNY Westchester Community College, Biden insisted that Congress avoid default “immediately and without conditions.”

“There’s a very extreme wing of the Republican Party, and the House of Representatives refer to themselves now, been calling this for a while, but now they refer to themselves as MAGA Republicans. And they’ve taken control of the House. And taken control. They have a speaker who has his job because he yielded to the — quote — MAGA element of the party,” Biden said.

“And they’re doing the best — to the best of my knowledge — what no other political party has done in our nation’s history. They’re literally, not figuratively, holding the economy hostage by threatening to default on our nation’s debt — a debt we’ve already incurred. We’ve already incurred over the last couple hundred of years, unless we give into the threats and demands of what we think we should be doing with regard to the budget. This would be incredibly damaging.

“Here’s what the speaker has put forward for the Republican proposal. He says he’s going to take funding, how we fund government, back to what the levels were in 2022. Before the omnibus bill. And they exclude any cuts in defense. They say we’re going to go back to spending what we spent in 2022, but we’re not going to make any cuts in defense, which we spent in 2023. We’re calling for in 2023. You may remember, in the State of the Union, I got our Republican colleagues to agree somewhat spontaneously to protect Social Security and Medicare from any cuts. Remember I said, ‘Let me get this straight. You’re not going to cut Medicare.’ They said, ‘That’s right.’ I said, ‘You know what, you’re on camera. They can see you.’

“Well, so far, they’re not cutting social security — so far.”

Biden said basic math shows the Republican plan can’t work as is without cutting entitlements.

“It leaves us with a requirement to cut 22% of everything else in the budget in order to meet the requirements they’re demanding that we limit the 2022 budget,” he said.

Programs that Biden said could receive cuts under the Republican plan include Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, an increase in federal law enforcement officers, and keeping air traffic control towers open.

Watch the CNN clip above.

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