On Friday, MSNBC’s “The Beat,” host Stephanie Ruhle, shared a brief segment of her recent interview with President Joe Biden. In that interview, Biden reportedly accused Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) of having “sold away everything” to the “far, far right.”
In the interview, when Biden was asked by Ruhle-
“Is Kevin McCarthy an honest broker for you to negotiate with?”
-Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC Host
Biden reportedly responded-
“I think he’s an honest man. I think he’s in a position, though. He had to make a deal that was pretty, you know, 15 votes. Fifteen votes where he just about sold away everything that he, that the far, far right. There’s a Republican Party and there’s the MAGA Republicans, and the MAGA Republicans really have put him in a position where in order to stay speaker, he has to agree, he’s agreed to things that maybe he believes, but are just extreme.”
-President Joe Biden
It’s almost as though Biden has to set the stage now, to make excuses for what he and the Democratically held Senate will need to consider bending on. To come the table and talk about the national debt as it relates to the debt ceiling itself, Biden bristles at. Honest conversation scares Democrats who don’t want to talk limits, but rather want an endless blank check out of Congress. Biden himself calls the two issues –“separate”. They appear seemingly unrelated in his mind.
Previously, stirring the debt ceiling pot, on Thursday, in an interview with CBS News, Anita Dunn, Biden Senior Adviser argued that House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), hasn’t really completed his job by passing a bill to raise the debt ceiling, because the House’s bill won’t pass the Senate. Now it’s up to Biden and McCarthy’s ability to negotiate.
Dunn clearly expressed her frustration at the fact that the two sides “have to come together.” Further she took time to blame McCarthy for his neglect, in putting forth a bill that the Senate could work with, and that Biden could sign.
Reportedly she pointed the finger at McCarthy and House Republicans who she indicated had failed to do their job saying-
“I think what the President expects is, first of all, for Congress to do its job. This is actually Congress’ job, the President cannot raise the debt limit. It is their job to do this. It is their job to keep us from defaulting…
…But what he would also like to do and he has been clear about this is that there is a place and it’s an appropriate time now, for the congressional leaders to begin the kinds of budget discussions that, frankly, you have when one house is controlled by the Republicans, the other house is controlled by Democrats. … But that has nothing to do with keeping the United States economy from going into default.”
-Anita Dunn, Biden Senior Adviser
So the negotiation challenge remains, especially for Biden and the administration. McCarthy, miraculously, was able to secure a bill that is a springboard for the Biden administration to come to the table over. Democrats however, will drag their feet to the last minute – hoping to secure that blank check they seek. It was very telling, when in Friday’s interview Ruhle asked Biden –
“Given the power that they have, is there anything you believe you can get done in the next two years on a bipartisan basis, and if so, what?”
-Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC Host
Reportedly, Biden then replied, as it related to his wish list in spending –
“The answer is yes, I do, if I get a chance to get votes. They have to vote.”
-President Joe Biden
Clearly, control of the House, together with the staunch stand that Republicans, as well as some conservatively minded Democrats have taken, has Biden and his administration in a bind. It remains to be seen how these talks will go. So very much is at stake here. This nation’s posterity depends on finding a course of action to stop this seemingly run-away freight train of spending. It remains to be seen what fiscal responsibility looks like at this point, when both sides of the isle really come to the table.
“We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”
-Ronald Reagan