MCCARTHY FACES HIS FIRST BIG TEST WITH THE DEBT CEILING

MCCARTHY FACES HIS FIRST BIG TEST WITH THE DEBT CEILING

Shared By Peter Boykin – American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist

MCCARTHY FACES HIS FIRST BIG TEST WITH THE DEBT CEILING

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy will deliver a speech at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to make the case to the American people that Joe Biden must stop raising our debt ceiling or risk economic disaster.

This fight is months in the making and will be the first true test of McCarthy’s speakership.

Definition of the debt ceiling: the legislative limit on the amount of national debt the federal government can accumulate. The U.S. is currently at the $31.4 ceiling cap.

Big picture: On our current path, that debt will balloon to over $50 trillion in ten years, at which point interest payments on our debt will reach $1.4 trillion per year. For perspective, the current annual defense budget is about $800 billion. This would result in financial disaster for every American.

Behind the scenes, House Republicans seem to have the support for a plan that would allow Biden to raise the debt ceiling for one year as long as he committed to billions in budget cuts. According to Punchbowl News, the cuts will:

rolling back domestic discretionary spending to fiscal 2022 levels

rescind unspent Covid money

prohibit student loan forgiveness

repeal green tax credits

impose new work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries under the age of 60 and with no dependents.

…all of these cuts are estimated to save $3-4 trillion over the next 10 years. Not nearly enough to address the financial disaster I highlighted above. But I guess it’s a start, while we’re not in power.

In 1985, then-President Ronald Reagan also chose the NYSE as the backdrop for a historic speech to the American public on revving up the U.S. economy.

McCarthy’s speech is right after markets open. You can expect it to be all about the debt ceiling and making the case for why any raise must be paired with spending cuts. Democrats want to raise the debt ceiling without cutting spending. So this is all about winning the public relations battle.

[Source: Punch Bowl News, CNN, The Hill, Fox Business]

https://punchbowl.news/archive/41323-punchbowl-news-am/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/16/politics/debt-ceiling-house-republicans-white-house/index.html

https://thehill.com/business/3860026-us-yearly-deficits-projected-to-average-2-trillion-over-next-decade-report/#:~:text=Fiscal%20watchdogs%20are%20also%20dialing,%2450%20trillion%20in%2011%20years.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/interest-payments-national-debt-reach-1-4-trillion-annually-2033-cbo

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