(PartiallyPolitics.com) – House Republicans are moving ahead with their plan for reducing federal spending over the next few weeks after President Biden refused to negotiate potential cuts with the GOP as part of raising the debt ceiling.
Last week, Biden clarified that he was not planning on negotiating with House Republicans. The White House has also dismissed the claims of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who stated that spending cuts and increases to the debt ceiling would need to be discussed together. Instead, the House claimed that it was up to Congress to pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase.
House GOP lawmakers are not moving ahead with the White House’s advice and they are instead choosing to focus on passing 12 annual spending bills that would help the federal government continue running. With these bills, they are also going to be pushing for spending cuts through the committee work.
An aide noted regarding this that “The real work is done by the [appropriations] process.” He added that the process was going to most likely begin in May and that Republicans were still hoping that this work was going to lead to negotiations with the president about spending and the debt ceiling.
The aide further added that when it comes to the discussions with the President the work is going to be in that either he chooses to engage in the negotiations or “he’s going to be responsible for a default himself for not sitting down and doing what you have to do in a divided government, which is work across the political branches.”
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