White House Threatens Veto of Republicans’ Debt Limit Budget Plan
The standoff over the federal debt ceiling heated up Tuesday, with the White House threatening to veto the Republicans’ proposed budget bill.
In a letter sent to the House of Representatives, President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the president would reject the Republicans’ plan to lift the debt ceiling, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working to pass this week.
McCarthy’s “Limit, Save, Grow Act,” introduced last week, would raise the debt ceiling—averting a looming financial crisis—while gutting several of Biden’s policies including student loan forgiveness and green energy tax credits.
“The bill stands in stark contrast to the President’s vision for the economy,” the OMB wrote. “Therefore, if the President were presented with the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, he would veto it.”
The two sides are clashing over the limit that Congress imposes on how much the government is allowed to borrow to pay the obligations that Congress has previously authorized—all of the federal government’s expenses, including things like military salaries and Social Security payments.
The Treasury went over the limit in January, and since then has continued to pay bills with accounting measures designed to postpone default. Those measures are set to run out this summer.
Republicans, who narrowly control the House of Representatives, have demanded spending cuts in exchange for lifting the ceiling, while Democrats have insisted the limit be raised unconditionally.
The parties are quickly running out of time to reach an agreement. The “X-date” when the government can no longer pay all of its bills will likely arrive in mid-August, but there’s an outside chance it could come as soon as early as June, depending
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