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Understanding 9/11tv Congressional Leaders on White House Debt Limit Meeting CSPAN May 13, 2023 4:55pm-5:33pm EDT
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democracy. at the white house, president met with top congressional leaders. house speaker kevin mccarthy, minority leader hakeem jeffries to discuss the approaching deadline to raise the u.s. debt limit. following their meeting they spoke to reporters on their differences on the issue.
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>> thank you for joining us. 97 days ago i was right here after meeting with the president. on february 1 i came saying let's work together in a responsible, sensible way and we can lift the debt ceiling and find a way we can curb this increasing debt while -- now three of our four largest banks have closed because of the debt problem. nothing has changed since then. the only thing that has changed is the house has raised the debt ceiling and past the bill. that is why we had a meeting today. everybody in this meeting reiterated the positions they are at. i did not see any new movement.
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the president said the staff should get back together. i was clear with the president, we now have just two weeks to go. if chuck schumer could pass something we would go to congress right away but i don't think chuck schumer can pass anything. fortunately the president has waited 97 days without ever meeting. everyday i asked to meet and he said no. the house has raised the debt ceiling in a responsible manner, curb our spending at the same time, bring us economic growth. i asked the president, does he not believe there is anyplace we can find savings? he signed a bill that pandemic is over. we have $50 billion to $60 billion that has sat out there we could put in growth packages that help us economically, cutting the red tape so we can build things nrl america.
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we could have items that he actually voted like work requirements that passed in wisconsin with 82% of the votes to help our supply chain get stronger. we had divided governm.
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the solution to this solution lies with two people, president of the united states who can sign a bill and deliver the members of his party to vote for it and the speaker of the house, and there is no sentiment in the senate, certainly not 60 votes for a clean debt ceiling. so there must be an agreement and the sooner the president and the speaker can reach an agreement, the sooner we can solve the problem. reporter: did the president tell you there are any spending cuts he would shall open to mccarthy mccarthy he wouldn't -- the speaker: he didn't give me any. you shouldn't spend more money than the pandemic and added 6
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trillion and what happened, we got inflation. we heard every family in america. find places to eliminate waste and grow this economy and that's what the house bill does. i would have loved to have said february 1 on, working together and negotiating something. unfortunately he would never meet with us. i had to look for things that democrats agreed to before. senator manchin said we should cap the growth going forward. take the next 10 years and spend more each year, but only 1%. that would save us a lot of money. finding savings money in covid and growing the economy lowering the cost of energy but at the same time changing the red tape and the permitting so we can build things again. i thought that was a common ground idea we could get together on.
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we had made sure we wouldn't go into default and the house raised the debt limit and also had growth. reporter: moving forward, do you feel confident that that june 1 deadline -- the speaker: i didn't see much difference in the statements from the president or chuck schumer. he wants to take us to the brink and someone has to brick. i don't want to pay politics. this is too important. that is why three months ago i came to the president, can't we find a way -- i know we have to give-and-take. the founders founded our government, the house, senate and executive branch and let's sit down and find places to agree upon and to ignore that, we had to go on our own. reporter: what are the odds of default after this meeting? and what happens next?
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speaker mccarthy: the house made sure we wouldn't devote -- default because we raised the debt limit. the senate hasn't done anything. that would come down to chuck schumer and the president. the house made sure we wouldn't default. we raised the debt limit and sent it to the senate and sat with the president. i tried to for 97 days. he has said no. the only reason we are actually here today is because we passed something but i hope we only have two more weeks to get this done. reporter: congress has the purse strings. are you prepared to own this?
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we raised the debt limit and the senate has not. i find that out. reporter: did the president bring any proposals to this meeting and is there a plan for another meeting, when would that be. how is the president posture in this meeting than how you have seen him in the past? speaker mccarthy: i turn it over to the leader. we will get back to the principles on friday. senator mcconnell: how we have done it in 2019. i told president trump, he didn't have any choice but to deal with the speaker, he designated the secretary of the treasury, mnuchin, and after that, debt proposals that lasted for two years. i come back to where i started. the solution is between the one person in america who can sign a bill into law and the speaker of the house. and sooner they get together, the better, if they get together. the bill will pass both the house and the senate on a bipartisan basis.
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reporter: leader mcconnell said the united states will not default on its debt. can you say that the united states will not default? speaker mccarthy: yes, because the house raised the debt limit. i'm speaker of the house and i'm not the leader or the president. i have done everything in my power to make sure we will not default. we passed a bill to raise the debt limit. i haven't seen it in the senate, so i don't know. reporter: he is willing to negotiate overspending about but not going to do so with a gun to the head of the american economy. what was your response to him? speaker mccarthy: i don't want to put any guns. i sat out here. i want to have something responsible and sensible. what i would say to you and the american public, would it be wrong if you took hardworking
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taxpayer money and billions of dollars appropriated for a pandemic that is now over, why wouldn't you pull it back? a debt ceiling is like your child having a credit card. reached the limit. we are responsible for paying it or just raise the limit without seeing how you are spending your money? that's all we are talking about. i understand that the president has to sign it and pass the senate. why couldn't we have in the last 97 days talk about that? why wouldn't it a president and vice president before, if you look at all his quotes, they -- this is a man that prided himself, they called it the biden negotiation. when he was senator he voted against the debt ceiling because he said they didn't cut enough in spending. this is a president $14 trillion
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said we have to do something about this that we have. -- big debt that we have. it is now $31 trillion. every single household believes you need to do something responsible and that's what we are trying to do the last three months. reporter: what gives you this confidence that there won't be a default? when you say the u.s. has never defaulted and never will, what gives you that confidence to say that? senator mcconnell: the united states of america is not going to default. we are having a debate here in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling as whether or not after dropping $2.6 trillion on the american people in the last congress on a partisan vote, we ought to have at least some restraint on our spending related to the debt ceiling.
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and this is not unusual. we have been here before. debt ceilings have carried other measures. what we have here is we are running out of time and time for the president to get serious and sit down with the speaker. [indiscernible chatter] speaker mccarthy: the democrats think it is extreme that we want to say we should only spend next year what we spent five months ago. they said draconian. what we spent five months ago is more than how much president biden and they proposed to spend this time. people were being hurt. people not getting veteran care and people not getting what they asked for five months ago. is that too much?
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we can raise the debt limit and spend what we did five months ago and pull back that covid money and put work requirements that help the supply chain and get promoted and more jobs and make us energy independent so americans have a lower cost in their energy bills. if they have a better idea, i'm sitting here for the last 97 days, tell me what it is. reporter: did you address the argument from the administration saying that house republicans want to cut veterans' benefits? and are you confident that if they said the house republicans would accept anything less than the house bill? speaker mccarthy: that is a lie, where in the bill does it say we cut veterans.
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we increase the funding to veterans. this is what i'm talking about. that type of behavior is pure political rhetoric. this is too an important issue to play political games. if one party says those type of things, i'm asking that we spend the amount of money five months ago. and how the system works, just like any other household and certain amount of income in and prioritize how you spend it. appropriation process, democrats and republicans will sit in committee and decide how much to spend. the difference is we'll spend what we spent five months ago and decide what our priorities are. we will look with a fine-tooth comb. where is there waste? every single american can point it out and spend less on waste. [indiscernible chatter]
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for the sake of the country and why we would never be in a place like this. 97 days ago i sat in the oval office and said let's find an agreement. he would not move and not negotiate. even though the majority of americans believed that's what we should do. this isn't the same biden who was a senator and vice president, who believed that we should negotiate, who argued that you had to be together. even though he wouldn't do that, the house passed the bill to make sure for the american people that we wouldn't get there. [indiscernible chatter] reporter: was anything accomplished at today's meeting? is this country looking down at 40 trillion debt and when did the card max out? speaker mccarthy: that's what the american public should think about. how did we get it.
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you spend more money than you bring in. 50-year average we spend 21% of g.d.p. when the democrats took the majority, they increased it to more than 24%. is there enough money coming in? on 50-year average, 17%. we are at 20%. do you know how many times we have ever brought in this much money? only two times in modern history, in 1944 and 2000. we have more money coming in, but the problem is they increased spending by $6 trillion and brought us inflation and $31 trillion debt that is bigger than our whole economy by 20%. and only been in this one other time after world war ii. if you don't tackle this problem now, you are harming all the future generations.
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every american would care for their children and grandchildren. is it too much to ask that we spend what we spent five months ago and too much to say let's take that covid money that you did not spend and give it back to the taxpayer to raise the debt ceiling. reporter: did you get the impression that the president could use other options such as invoking the 14th amendment? speaker mccarthy: no. we'll have the staff come together and get back together on friday. reporter: all five or just the two of you? speaker mccarthy: all five. reporter: we have had the dire warning is this despite the risk to the u.s. economy. speaker mccarthy: we lifted the debt ceiling. the senate has not.
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chuck schumer hasn't done anything. and in march, they made that maine maple syrup month. i wish they would stop playing political games. they stopped the rhetoric that certain things are being cut or not. i want the american people to understand is it too much that , we ask that we spend five months ago. is it too much to ask that we find waste in government like that $60 billion that we spent that no one used with covid. is it too much to ask that we cut red tape to build roads and highways and wind and solar panels and energy independence. if that is too much, tell me what they think is right? do you believe they should spend their grandchildren's money and create more inflation?
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i think that's wrong. [indiscernible question] speaker mccarthy: we have a timetable here. i know the president wasted 97 days. and i told him that -- listen, we should work together, let's be responsible. i won't predetermine what we have to have. and i think we should find ways to grow this economy. you reported this how many times and said how many times he wouldn't meet with us. and he agreed to meet with ways to make the economy stronger and he chose and met with me the next day at the prayer breakfast. well, he changed his mind and he said we have to pass a budget and does nothing with the debt ceiling. senator schumer would tweet out,
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we have to have a plan. he didn't produce one. but we produced the plan and raised the debt ceiling and sent it to the senate. the president wasted 97 days and the secretary of treasury and -- has told us the date is even sooner. thank goodness we wouldn't be in that problem and see what the senate can do. reporter: a jury just found donald trump guilty of sexual abuse, do you still support him? do you think any progress has been made? speaker mccarthy: the progress is we are able to meet and that is a difference. 97 days, he denied the ability for anybody to negotiate. i don't know how many times you asked him about it. i asked him every day. i offered to bring food.
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i would do anything so that we could meet together and work on a bill so we wouldn't be at this day. what is interesting, i said the same thing when it comes to the border and we have a problem with title 42. the house, same thing. i tried to meet with him how to secure the border and treated the debt limit, he ignored it. but in the house, we will pass a bill this thursday that could secure our border and deal with title 42 so these people cannot enter illegally. we are trying to be responsible and sensible. i think what we really need is a partner that is willing to work together. it is unfortunate that they don't want to even talk. >> did the president ring any offers? speaker mccarthy: pretty much. reporter: this has to be hashed out in the next few days. can you assure them they are not going to start feeling the
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economic pain? speaker mccarthy: i am only elected to one house and i think it's very important. that's why i came here in february. the very beginning of february. i asked to meet sooner. that is the soonest he would meet with me. think for one moment, everybody knows how dire this is, this is the first time that president of the united states that he brought all four leaders together. think of all the issues that america has had from the border, inflation, from the bank crisis and inflation. never once has he brought the four leaders together. he has waited until two weeks before. would he have even brought us together if we had not passed the bill? that's not a way to govern. i'm not holding anybody to any position. i am simply saying, i want to meet and work this out. i want to be respectful to your job and your position. so you know what we did?
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we told him where we stood. we passed it to prove we had the votes to do it. we don't want to take america down a path we wouldn't want. we wanted to do it months ago. but unfortunately he has a lot of power. [indiscernible chatter] >> in these years, the u.s. did default. is there a plan if all else fails? speaker mccarthy: they say they have no plan b. the only way to raise the debt ceiling, something has to pass the house and it has to pass the senate. the houses is done our job. i'm not a senator but what i can do is do our job in the house and we have. [indiscernible chatter] reporter: what topics that are
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going to be brought up and can you assure the american people everything will be ok? speaker mccarthy: we are doing our job. but it's hard to work with somebody that you can't meet with them. you know, what's interesting, i love america and i love our form of government, but what it's really designed to do after the election is over, you come together and negotiate. you find common ground. so when we devised our bill, i looked for proposals that democrats proposed. like capping spending going forward. pulling the covid money. that is what we have done. last question. >> congressman santos has been charged by federal prosecutors. do you believe he should be removed from congress? speaker mccarthy: i'll look at the charges.
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[indiscernible chatter. reporter: do you think this can be resolved through regular order? speaker mccarthy: regular order, if we look back to february 1, the house could have been passed the bill and the senate and could have gone to congress and doing the press conference here and talking. it's really difficult if this is the very first time that the president would bring four leaders together. hakeem jeffries, we get together every week. and we'll vote different. i respect his position. i respect him as a leader of the democrats. i tell him things that we are going to propose. we may not always agree but that's the way it should work. you should be able to talk and negotiate. it is unfortunate that so many of you are here today because the president has denied us to talk the last 97 days. i'm hoping that the next two weeks are different. i'm hoping this president understands as the leader of
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this nation that you can't sit back and hold the country hostage and can't be so stream -- so extreme in your views that you aren't going to negotiate. the american public has been very reasonable. i think spending the amount of money we spent five months ago , regardless of what the president thinks is cutting or not, is sensible. every household would do that. any time the household has a problem, they would get together and decide their priorities. that's all we want to do and , we want to raise the debt limit and make our army stronger. thank you all. have a good day. [indiscernible chatter] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.] >> i am proudy
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colleague in the house, hakeem jeffries. there was bad news and good news from today's meeting. the bad news, we explicitly asked speaker mccarthy would he take default off the table. he refused. president biden said he would, leader jeffries said he would, i said i would, but he would not take it off the table. instead of him giving us a plan, to remove default, he gave us a plan to take the world hostage. that is a shame. that makes things more complicated. the bottom line is a simple,
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there are large differences between the parties, if you look at what president biden had proposed and what speaker mccarthy has proposed, they are different. we can try to come together on those. in a budget and appropriations process. to use the risk of default, with all the dangers that has for the american people, as a hostage. and say it is my way or no way, or mostly my way. it is dangerous. we repeat our plea to speaker mccarthy, take default off the table and let's resume negotiations in the budget process, in the appropriations process, where we have legitimate differences. the president asked we lead to the people from all four of the leaders and himself to start sitting down as early as
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tonight, certainly tomorrow to see where we can come to an agreement on the budget and appropriations process. there are probably some places we can agree and compromise hopefully. but that has to occur as part of the budget and appropriations process. >> i think president biden for convening us to have this conversation. under no circumstances should the u.s. default on our debt. america must always pay our bills. a default would be catastrophic for everyday americans, small businesses, people all across the land. house democrats have taken default off the table. senate democrats have taken default off the table. senate republicans, as just
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indicated by leader mcconnell have taken default off the table. president biden, from the very beginning, took default off the table. there is one group in washington ec, extreme maga republicans who are willing to take us down the path of default. it is reckless, irresponsible and extreme. we are thankful that president biden has asked the four corners of the capital, along with the administration to get together, as early as this evening, if not tomorrow to make sure that we can have a conversation about the budget, about the appropriations process, about spending, and investments, and revenue. and all four parties have agreed.
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on timeline, let me say, there has been a narrative that has emerged from my friends on the house republican side, that the reason why we are at this point is because of in action. nothing can be further from the truth. president biden and speaker mccarthy met on february 1. in that meeting, president biden said, default is off the table, as it has been repeatedly during democratic and republican administrations, including three times when we helped president trump raise the debt ceiling, without partisanship. simultaneously, we can have a discussion about the budget. president biden said, the administration will produce its budget for the american people by march 9. the budget was produced by president joe biden on march 9.
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he said we need to understand the house republican position, produce your budget. march 9 came and went, no republican ajit. week after week -- march 9 came and went, no republican budget. we saw no republican plan, no republican budget. on april 26, they passed one. it was extreme. it put polluters over people, it dramatically cut medicaid for disabled children and seniors. it would cut veterans benefits, cut health care, cut law enforcement, cut a variety of things that would undermine the health and safety of the american people. that wasn't past, until april 26.
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the next day, the house went out of session. they were gone and did not return until today, when president biden reconvened us to urgently deal with this issue. we will take a couple of quick questions. >> the speaker said he has passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling and you have not. the ball is now in your court. what is your reaction? >> that is the wrong question. every time we have passed a debt ceiling, it is a bipartisan. his bill doesn't have a single democrat in support. it gets us nowhere. have to negotiate to get these done. what is troubling about the speaker's position, it is a partisan bill and he says, take it or leave it, or we could default. by not taking default off the table, speaker mccarthy is
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greatly endangering america and making it harder to make progress on budget negotiations. the bottom line is simple. mitch mcconnell himself has said that the speaker has to come to an agreement with the president. and he has said the senate is never going to pass of the house bill, mcconnell has said that. the idea he can have a partisan bill that has no chance of being signed by the president, and no chance of passing the senate, and instead uses it. one of the reporters asked him, are you going to hold a gun to bo's heads? he didn't -- they asked are you going to hold a gun to people's heads? he did not deny it. the way it has been done every time in the past, when president
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trump was president, i could have said i am holding it hostage unless we repeal the trump tax cuts. i did not do that, but mccarthy is saying i am holding it hostage unless you repeal the ira, our signature issue. >> you have talked about the regular budget and appropriations buses, how much discussion with there of a short-term increase? >> we are going to meet tonight and tomorrow to begin talking about that appropriations process and budget process, to see if there can be agreement. anyone who says my way or no way, or we are going to default, is not serving their country well. i am afraid that is what speaker mccarthy is saying. >> do you think the odds of default has arisen? -- has risen? >> after being out of town, for
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close to two weeks, we had an honest discussion about a path forward. president biden urged us to get together today or tomorrow with our teams to have a discussion about a path forward around the budget and the appropriations process, and everyone agreed. that is progress. >> thank you everybody. >> after the white house meeting, how speaker kevin mccarthy held a press conference on the debt ceiling from capitol hill. president biden made remarks into questions, asserting that defaulting on the nation's debt is not an option.
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