Kevin McCarthy to speak on debt ceiling at New York stock exchange – follow all the latest politics news
Democrats hit back at GOP’s New York blitz
In 1985, Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the New York Stock Exchange in which he outlined his economic priorities. The former president is today beloved among conservatives, and House speaker Kevin McCarthy apparently hopes to benefit from those good vibes when he makes an address from the same venue today, with the subject being the modern-day struggle to raise the debt ceiling.
While the chamber’s Republican majority has not released a budget yet, they’re reportedly looking to demand everything from spending cuts to the enactment of GOP economic priorities in exchange for their votes to increase the borrowing limit. It’s a high-stakes negotiation, because if they can’t reach an agreement with the White House and Democrats in the Senate by the time the government runs out of money – thought to be sometime in June, but potentially sooner or later – the United States could default on its debt obligations for the first time ever.
“We are seeing in real-time the effects of reckless government spending. Record inflation, and the hardships it causes. Rising interest rates. Supply chain shortages. Instability in the banking system. And uncertainty across the board,” McCarthy will say in his speech at the New York Stock Exchange, according to Punchbowl News.
“Unlike President Biden, I don’t dismiss Americans’ fears about higher prices. I share them. And I share their conviction that we must change course before it’s too late.”
Joe Biden, meanwhile, refuses to negotiate over the debt ceiling, saying that rather than use it as leverage to accomplish other priorities, the GOP should agree to raise it without preconditions. Here’s deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates this morning with a remainder of how Republicans have handled the issue in the past:
One of the only bipartisan norms the Trump Administration didn’t break? Not negotiating over avoiding default. @SpeakerMcCarthy agreed with him.
Trump in 2019: « I can’t imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge. » https://t.co/luLLIAqnGD https://t.co/t8vozgafaK— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) April 17, 2023
Elsewhere in the city, the House judiciary committee has convened their hearing into crime, but before that began, the committee’s Democrats gathered to argue that the panel is really just about Donald Trump. Here’s Punchbowl News:
.@HouseJudiciary Democrats are holding a presser with @NYCMayor Eric Adams ahead of GOP’s crime hearing.
Ranking Member Jerry Nadler accuses Jim Jordan of engaging in an “outrageous abuse of power” by holding this hearing, which he says is disguised as a defense of Trump. pic.twitter.com/FYzjHengik— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) April 17, 2023
My colleague Kira Lerner and I have just left the courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, where the judge overseeing the closely watched defamation lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News offered little explanation for why he chose to delay the opening of the trial, which was scheduled to begin Monday.
