McConnell Remarks Ahead of Biden-McCarthy Meeting on Government Spending

Statement

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding government borrowing:

"Later today, the Speaker of the House and the President will begin bipartisan discussions about the future trajectory of the government's borrowing and spending.

"It is right, appropriate, and entirely normal that our need to raise the debt limit would be paired with negotiations regarding Democrats' runaway printing and spending.

"The American people changed control of the House because the voters wanted to constrain Democrats' runaway, reckless, party-line spending. The voters of this country looked at the trillions of dollars of party-line spending, the runaway inflation, and the mountain of debt -- and last November they hit the brakes.

"We just experienced two years when Washington Democrats got to set policy without negotiating. And the American people put an end to it.

"Some Democrats are trying to rewrite history and pretend that Republicans' demands for negotiations are unusual. But that's just false.

"Back in 2017, the Senate Democratic Leader said the debt ceiling gave Democrats, "leverage' in broader talks.

"As the New York Times explained back in 2017, then-Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader, "began formulating a plan to apply pressure, jettisoning the idea of backing a straightforward or "clean' debt limit measure… as a way to gain muscle in coming negotiations.'

"That was the Pelosi-Schumer playbook for the debt limit: Demand negotiations.

"Here's how the Democratic Leader put it himself at the time. He said the debt ceiling, "gives another ample opportunity for bipartisanship, not for one party jamming its choices down the throats of the other.'

"So I trust Democrats will be consistent with their past positions, and the White House will waste no time beginning the customary bipartisan negotiations with the new Republican majority in the House.

"The President of the United States does not get to walk away from the table.

"The same President who happily signed off on trillions of dollars of reckless party-line spending needs to begin good-faith negotiations on spending reform with Speaker McCarthy today."

Source