During an interview on CBS News’s “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan, McCarthy called out Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer for raising the debt ceiling while emphasizing that Democratic leadership should be doing more to cut costs. He said, “We cannot continue to puzzle-piece our way to solve financial problems because guess what — this debt is crushing future generations.”
McCarthy said, “the responsible thing to do is sit down like two adults and start having that discussion. “What has happened with the debt limit is you reached your credit card limit. Should we just continue to raise the limit? Or should we look at what we’re spending?”
McCarthy then took aim at Schumer and said, “Chuck Schumer never passed a budget since he’s been leading. He’s never passed an appropriation bill. Those are the most basic things that Congress should do.”
He went on to say, The only person who is getting in the way right now, is the president and Schumer. They won’t even pass a budget. They won’t even negotiate. We have now til June. I want to make sure we have something responsible, something that we can move forward on and something that we can balance our debt with.”
He continued by saying, “That’s exactly what I’ve been asking for. The only one who’s playing with the markets right now is the president to have the idea that he wouldn’t talk. Did the president really believe and really all your viewers, do you believe there’s no waste in government? Do you believe there was no waste in that $1.7 trillion? That’s what we were spending just four weeks ago. So I think the rational position here is sit down, eliminate the waste and put us on a path to balance.”
"We're not going to default," @SpeakerMcCarthy tells @margbrennan when asked if he will guarantee that the U.S. does not default on his watch, but McCarthy does not indicate whether he supports a short-term debt limit extension to September. pic.twitter.com/iIWLKJxJMl
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 29, 2023
