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House Accountability War Room Responds To Biden Meeting With McCarthy, Threatening Disastrous Default

House GOP Voted Three Times to Avoid Default Under Trump Without Conditions

Mark Zandi: Default Means Loss Of 6 Million Jobs, $12 Trillion Household Wealth, 4% GDP

House GOP On Record Wanting To Cut Social Security, Medicare

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Speaker McCarthy will meet with President Biden for the first time in his new role. The meeting comes at a time when McCarthy and other extreme MAGA House members are escalating threats to plunge the country into a default crisis, which would decimate the global economy and harm Americans, in exchange for gutting programs like Social Security and Medicare. A White House official recently said that Biden “will underscore that the economic security of all Americans cannot be held hostage to force unpopular cuts on working families.”

“McCarthy may be the person meeting with President Biden at the White House today — but as his chaotic fight for the Speakership revealed, it is MAGA extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene who are really steering the ship” said Zac Petkanas, senior advisor to the House Accountability War Room. “McCarthy’s puppets are playing a dangerous game, risking a major economic crisis and putting American livelihoods at risk unless their extreme demands to cut programs like Social Security and Medicare are met. President Biden’sstaunch refusal to entertain these MAGA antics is sending a strong message that you cannot take seniors and veterans as hostages and just expect the world to roll over to your demands.”

Things to Know Ahead of McCarthy and Biden’s Default Meeting:

  1. House Republicans voted three times to avoid default under President Donald Trump without conditions.
  2. In addition to delaying Social Security and Medicare benefits, economist Mark Zandi says a default would mean a loss of 6 million jobs, $12 trillion in household wealth and 4% in GDP; and unemployment rate rising to at least 7%.
  3. The current default crisis is a direct result of the concessions McCarthy made to the extreme MAGA wing in order to secure the speakership. McCarthy promised cuts of at least $130 billion in the next fiscal year – which experts say must include cuts to social programs Americans want and need to make the math work.
  4. House Republicans have made clear that they are targeting Social Security and Medicare.
    • Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA): “Our main focus has got to be on nondiscretionary — it’s got to be on entitlements… I wouldn’t describe [cuts to discretionary spending] as a distraction, but I’m not sure it’s where our main focus should be.”
    • Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), the incoming chair of the House Budget Committee, favors significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Arrington wants to raise the ages of eligibility for both programs, and said that he does not believe that cutting Social Security will be popular, but, “There are a lot of tough decisions for all of us to make across the board. The rubber will meet the road with the real decisions about bending the curve on spending and reforming programs.”
    • The Republican Study Committee, which counts 75% of the Republican caucus as members, has proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The Study Committee’s “Blueprint to Save America” would raise the ages of eligibility for both programs, and privatize Medicare by converting it to a means-tested voucher program.
    • Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA): “We’re going to have to look at the whole board… The easiest to start with is discretionary, but the main driver of the national debt is the mandatory… Everything’s on the table.”
    • Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX): “Who says it’s clean? That’s [the Freedom Caucus’s] point. They don’t want [a clean debt ceiling increase]. They want constructive things like we’ve done in the past,” referring to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which imposed caps on discretionary spending and established sequestration, the automatic reduction of certain mandatory spending programs.
    • Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), told reporters that one of his “non-negotiable” conditions for supporting McCarthy was that McCarthy be “willing to shut the government down rather than raise the debt ceiling.”

 

To learn more or to speak with a House Accountability War Room spokesperson, contact [email protected]. 

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