The House Freedom Caucus hit the bullseye by targeting President Biden’s woke policy-driven proposed budget while offering their votes to raise the debt ceiling contingent to enacting commonsense legislation. The White House responded by issuing a “FIVE-ALARM FIRE” statement on Thursday that could only be seen as a precursor to a budget battle standoff that could push the nation into default this summer.
The caucus plan is the first offering from Republicans in negotiation over the debt-ceiling limit. They’re seeking to cut current spending by ending the $400 billion student loan debt cancellation program; rescinding unspent Covid-19 funding; recouping $80 billion in Internal Revenue Service funding, as well as billions of wasteful climate-change spending approved by the Inflation Reduction Act; and finding “every dollar spent by Democrats that can be reclaimed for the American taxpayer.”
The conservative caucus is asking to cap overall discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for 10 years while allowing for one-percent annual growth, which would cut $131 billion from fiscal year 2024, saving roughly $3 trillion over the long term “by cutting the wasteful, woke, and weaponized federal bureaucracy.” The 10-year plan offers a path to balancing the budget while protecting Social Security and Medicare benefits.
The White House defended Biden’s proposed budget and attacked the offered plan stating:
The extreme Freedom Caucus proposal will be a disaster for families in at least five key ways: endangering public safety, raising costs for families, shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and undermining American workers, weakening national security, and hurting seniors.
Using the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to affirm that “Congressional Republicans’ budget math doesn’t add up,” the White House shared CBO’s letter on how spending reductions could balance the budget by 2033. According to the White House, the CBO found that “in order to meet Congressional Republicans’ stated commitment to balancing the budget in 10 years without raising taxes on the wealthy or corporations, and without cutting Social Security, Medicare, defense, and some veterans’ benefits — Congressional Republicans would need to eliminate everything in the rest of the Federal budget.” (Emphasis in original.)
Keeping the political rhetoric alive, the White House closed their statement declaring that “the extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal will be a five-alarm fire for families — including by hurting seniors.”
Axios reported that House Freedom Caucus member Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) extended an invitation to President Biden to attend a Wednesday night caucus meeting “to begin budget talks with Capitol Hill’s true power brokers.”
“I’d remind Mr. Biden that America saw what the House Freedom Caucus is made of in January,” Boebert said. “Lies don’t move us. Media coverage doesn’t move us. Attack ads don’t move us. Policy moves us.”
When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) met with Biden to begin the budget discussion process in early February, the president was confident they could find common ground and reach an agreement.
The White House stated at that time: “President Biden made clear that, as every other leader in both parties in Congress has affirmed, it is their shared duty not to allow an unprecedented and economically catastrophic default. The United States Constitution is explicit about this obligation, and the American people expect Congress to meet it in the same way all of his predecessors have. It is not negotiable or conditional.”
McCarthy has yet to offer a budget plan — and may not have one ready until May — reportedly blaming Biden for being late in submitting his proposed budget to Congress. But that hasn’t stopped the Freedom Caucus from offering their plan — one that is conditional and open to negotiation.
Reporting on Wednesday’s Freedom Caucus press conference, Axios shared:
“We have a plan, we’re ready to go right now. There’s no reason this needs to be a crisis now or a crisis in the future,” said Freedom Caucus chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.). “If the president wants to solve this, we’re all here.”
“I’m very optimistic with what the Freedom Caucus has done,” added Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who joined the press conference with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). “We have a great opportunity to start the process of doing what every family in this country does, businesses do — live within our means.”
