House Republicans are committed to cutting spending before raising the debt limit despite threats from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the Daily Wire reports.
In a letter to McCarthy, Yellen warned Congress not to block the raising of the federal debt limit, writing that increasing it would “not authorize new spending commitments or cost taxpayers money.”
But on CNN’s State of the Union, House Oversight and Accountability Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) doubled down on the GOP’s vow to cut spending, also expressing hope that the Democrat-controlled Senate would join in.
“We hope that the Senate, Democrats, and Republicans will agree to spending cuts. Look, this has to stop,” Comer said.
“We cannot continue to operate with these types of deficits … Our national debt is one of our biggest threats to our national security. China continues to have leverage over us because of the basic financial strength of their overall economy vs. ours with respect to the national debt.”
“Republicans were elected with a mandate from the American people in the midterm elections,” Comer said, before adding that he and his colleagues won’t budge until “meaningful reform” is made.
“We campaigned on the fact that we were going to be serious about spending cuts. So, the Senate is going to have to recognize the fact that we’re not going to budge until we see meaningful reform with respect to spending.”
Comer on debt ceiling hostage taking: "We hope that the Senate — Democrats and Republicans — will agree to spending cuts … the Senate is gonna have to recognize the fact that we're not going to budge" pic.twitter.com/FCmmzPjNo5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2023
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) echoed Comer’s sentiments on Fox News Sunday, saying, “The debt ceiling is no doubt going to be a knife fight.”
Last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Republicans won’t be doing “business as usual” with regard to the debt ceiling.
“We don’t want to put any fiscal problems through our economy, and we won’t,” McCarthy said.
“But fiscal problems would be continuing to do business as usual. I remembered when Trump was President and Nancy Pelosi was Speaker that became a debt ceiling agreement, and it was a cap agreement for two years, to cap the spending and make those decisions.”
“Spending is out of control here,” he said.
“There’s been no oversight, and we cannot continue around the same process.”
