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President Biden said Monday that he can’t gloat about Democrats doing well in debt-ceiling negotiations because he wants the bill to pass Congress.
The agreement between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to raise the federal borrowing limit until January 2025 outraged some fiscal conservatives who wanted deeper cuts.
“One of the things that I hear some of you guys saying is, ‘Why doesn’t Biden say what a good deal it is?’” the 80-year-old president told reporters on the White House lawn.
“Why would Biden say what a good deal it is before the vote? You think that’s going to help me get it passed?” the president mused among the press.
“No. That’s why you guys don’t bargain very well,” he told them.
Biden said that any Democrats who have reservations about the legislation, which is expected to get a House vote as early as Wednesday, should “talk to me.”
Asked what he’d tell those largely left-wing Democratic skeptics, Biden said, “I’m not going to tell you.”
“Look, you guys all go on and say, ‘Tell them what a good deal this is!’ How about, ‘This was a 100% deal for Democrats,’ do you think it’d help me get it passed?” Biden asked.
When a reporter excitedly asked him who got the better deal, Democrats or Republicans, Biden added that it was a “bipartisan deal.”
The president launched into a lecture when another reporter asked if the legislation would pass “no question” by June 5, when the Treasury Department says the US will begin to be unable to pay its bills.
