House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., cheered the prospect that President Biden can no longer demand a clean debt ceiling increase after the GOP narrowly passed its own legislation earlier in May.
McCarthy told "Hannity" his caucus mainly believes in a "limit, save, grow" approach, and that Biden's most recent ruminations about a stipulation-free increase are laughable.
"On Feb. 1, I sat down with the president saying, 'Let's negotiate a debt ceiling increase, but also change the trajectory of the money that we're spending,'" McCarthy said. "He ignored us for 105 days, but because we united, we were able to pass a bill, we got into where we had a meeting. The president said all along he would not negotiate, and you had to just increase the debt ceiling."
McCarthy said that as of Tuesday, Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., admitted that particular stance is no longer a position they can hold, and that members of the two men's staves have been tapped to hash it out with Republicans.
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER DISAPPOINTED WITH BIDEN'S HANDLING OF DEBT NEGOTIATIONS
"You can't keep raising the debt ceiling. It's like having your child have a credit card and year after year, you keep reaching the limit, and you just keep expanding it. Well, there comes a point where your credit card now costs you more than all the money you make in a year — bigger than your entire economy."
He said, therefore, the debt ceiling negotiations presented an opportunity to responsibly adjust the nation's fiscal path.
Earlier Wednesday, McCarthy and a group of Republicans laughed when a reporter asked about Biden's latest contention he will negotiate terms, sans "anything of any consequence," after the speaker mentioned instituted stricter work requirements for able-bodied, childless individuals on welfare.
"This is a senator who voted for work requirements," McCarthy said of Biden, a former senator.
On "Hannity," he nodded to that exchange, saying the work requirements included in Republicans' debt ceiling increase legislation will help take select Americans "from poverty to jobs — help them get out of that poverty mess."
"The president said he wasn't going to negotiate. We were just going to raise the debt ceiling," McCarthy said.
"First of all, we have just now been able to have a victory: The president can no longer say that. So, no, the debt ceiling will not get raised with no changes. If we get a fundamental change where we get a cap on what we're spending, that's trillions of dollars' saving[s]," he said.
McCarthy posited the next few weeks present the opportunity to have the most substantive welfare reform since Clinton, and the biggest spending cut since former President Ronald Reagan.
