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President Biden on Wednesday sought to drive a wedge among Republicans in the escalating debate over spending and debt, and rather than risk triggering a national default that could wreck the economy, he turned to the moderates of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. effectively worked to persuade him to break up with tail spin.
Emerging in the competitive suburbs with a view to vulnerable House Republicans, Mr. Biden has pursued a radical strategy on the behest of the “extremists” of the party loyal to former President Donald J. Trump, threatening the country. He accused Mr McCarthy of endangering him. He is in financial jeopardy in a way no sensible Republican in his contemporaries could have done.
“They took control of the House,” Biden said of the wing to a friendly audience at Westchester Community College of the State University of New York in New York’s Hudson Valley. “They have a chairman who is doing his job because he has succumbed to the MAGA element of the party,” he added.
Biden said these far-right Republicans “are literally, not figuratively, holding our economy hostage by threatening to default on our debts, debts that we have already borne for hundreds of years.” Unless you give in to their threats and demands. ”
The visit appears to have been, at least in part, intended to put pressure on the Speaker by alienating even a few House Republicans. Even a relatively minor insurgency would complicate McCarthy’s position, as the bill he passed through the House last month, which would combine a debt ceiling hike and drastic spending cuts, passed by just one vote.
On Wednesday, Mr. Biden singled out local Republican lawmaker Mike Lawler, who was sitting in the front row of the audience, and praised him for being a more rational member of his party. “Mike is on another team,” Biden said. Mike is the kind of Republican guy I used to hang out with when I was in Congress. He’s not one of the MAGA Republicans. ”
The president’s visit came a day after he invited McCarthy and other congressional leaders to the White House to discuss the crisis. Although no progress was made in this session, Leaders agreed to have staff meet daily and reconvene on Friday.
The federal government has reached its statutory $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, and the Treasury Department estimates that by June 1, it will run out of ways to avoid default. For the first time in history, it could have devastating effects on an already fragile economy. McCarthy has argued that any debt ceiling hike will be tied to spending cuts, but Biden has refused to tie the two together. He agreed to negotiate separately on deficit control.
The annual deficit reached $1.375 trillion last year, up from $983 billion in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted huge relief spending, and is expected to double over the next decade. Predicted. Leaving aside the implications for the debt ceiling, both sides are deeply divided on how to deal with the deficit problem. Biden has proposed a budget that cuts the projected deficit by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years by raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy, while McCarthy’s plan is largely through cuts to the discretionary system. It aims to cut the budget deficit by $4.8 trillion.
Addressing a floating voter base in suburban New York, Mr. Biden appeared to have two audiences: voters outside the metropolitan area who may not have paid much attention to the debate, and Mr. Lawler. Lawler, a 36-year-old former political operative and first-term Republican, is an obvious target for the White House to sway. He ousted Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who was chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee at the time, in a district Biden won by 10 points.
In Washington, Mr. Lawler has positioned himself as a straight-laced moderate, supporting Mr. McCarthy’s debt ceiling and spending plans, while breaking with the party on several cultural issues. Both parties see him as one of the most vulnerable Republican lawmakers in 2024, and Democrats already have millions of dollars and a candidate who could beat him.
For now, Lawler appears to be drawing a careful line between party leadership and the president. When the White House contacted him with an invitation to the event, which many in the Republican Party would have shied away from, he was quick to respond. In media interviews before and after his speech, Lawler reiterated that he does not support defaults. But at the same time, he blamed McCarthy and Biden for not getting involved sooner, and called for widespread spending cuts.
Lawler nodded politely when the president mentioned him onstage Wednesday at this community college just a few hundred feet from congressional district lines. “I don’t want to embarrass him by saying good or bad things about him,” Biden joked. “But thank you for coming, Mike. Thank you for being here. That’s how we used to do it.”
Lawler told reporters after his speech that he had a “very sincere” and “very candid” conversation with Biden backstage before the event. “He wanted me to know that he wasn’t here to pressure me in any way,” Lawler said, referring to the president’s podium that he himself is not a MAGA Republican. seemed to welcome the remarks at “You heard his comment today. I don’t think he put too much pressure on me.”
Lawler reaffirmed his vote for McCarthy’s bill. “We need to get the fiscal system in order,” he said. “So spending needs to be bound by the debt ceiling. That’s the message I gave the president.” But he repeatedly called for a bipartisan solution.
Local Democrats were unhappy that the president courted Lawler instead of attacking him. Former Congressman Mondea Jones, who stands to challenge Lawler next year, said after his speech that Lawler did nothing to justify being told he was “not a MAGA Republican.” rice field. Jones added, “He voted for everything Kevin McCarthy asked him to vote for at the request of the MAGA extremists.”
In fact, Republicans used Biden’s comments to refute attacks on Republican lawmakers by the Democratic Congressional Election Commission. “Despite DCCC’s repeated lies about Lawler’s position, Lawler is a down-to-earth congressman and is engaged in negotiations to avoid a government default,” the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement. Stated.
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