Manchin slams Biden, praises McCarthy in debt limit standoff

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) blasted President Biden on Thursday for refusing to negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over the nation’s fast-approaching debt ceiling crisis — while praising the Republican leader for putting out a proposal to cut federal spending.

“While it is reasonable to sincerely disagree with any specific debt ceiling approach, we will achieve a historic default, and the economic whirlwind which follows, if President Biden continues to refuse to even negotiate a reasonable and commonsense compromise,” Manchin, 75, said in a statement.

“To that end, I applaud Speaker McCarthy for putting forward a proposal that would prevent default and rein in federal spending,” he added. “While I do not agree with everything proposed, the fact of the matter is that it is the only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default.”

The West Virginia Democrat noted that 78 days have passed since Biden met with McCarthy to discuss the debt ceiling — a delay that he said showed “a deficiency of leadership.”

“America is facing a historic economic crisis brought on by an abject failure to address our exploding national debt, chronic inflation, a looming recession, and the more immediate need to raise the debt ceiling,” Manchin went on.

“For the sake of the country, I urge President Biden to come to the table, propose a plan for real and substantive spending cuts and deficit reduction, and negotiate now. 

“Failing to do so may score political points with the extremes of the Democratic Party, but make no mistake, it will be the American people — and our nation — who will pay the ultimate price if partisan politics continues to define our politics and policies.”

On Wednesday, McCarthy proposed legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024 — whichever comes first — in exchange for what he called “responsible” spending cuts.

“Right now there are more job openings than people looking for work,” the speaker said on the House floor Wednesday. “In part, because the Biden administration has weakened some of the very work requirements that then-Senator Joe Biden previously supported.”

America’s national debt is around $31.7 trillion — up from roughly $27.75 trillion when Biden assumed office in 2021, and roughly $19.95 trillion when former President Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017.

House Republicans’ proposal would reduce discretionary spending for non-defense programs to fiscal year 2022 levels and limit the growth of future expenditures to 1% annually over the next 10 years.

The act would also claw back an estimated $100 billion in unspent COVID aid and another $70 billion in IRS funding — money that came from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which Manchin helped negotiate.

McCarthy pledged the bill would also halt trillions of dollars in renewable energy tax credits to companies, which he called “green giveaways that distort the market and waste taxpayers’ money.”

Additionally, the House speaker proposed blocking Biden’s $400 billion student debt cancellation plan, which is currently the subject of a Supreme Court case to be decided later this year.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement early Thursday in response to McCarthy’s plan.

“Speaker McCarthy sided with the extreme MAGA wing of his conference and released a blueprint to devastate hard-working American families. MAGA House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage in order to take a hatchet to programs Americans rely on every day to make ends meet,” she said.

“Every House Republican who votes for this bill is voting to cut education, veterans medical care, cancer research, meals on wheels, food safety, and law enforcement,” Jean-Pierre added. “To offshore American manufacturing and kill good-paying jobs. To take health care away from millions of Americans and threaten food assistance for hundreds of thousands of older people. To increase energy bills and raise taxes for hard-working families. To slash programs hard-working Americans depend on even as they protect wealthy tax cheats and continue to push tax giveaways for the wealthiest and big corporations … House Republicans must avoid default and stop playing economic brinkmanship with the American people’s livelihoods and retirements.”