The White House is targeting Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) as it prepares for what is expected to be a protracted political skirmish over whether and how to raise the debt ceiling.
“Rep. Biggs is dead wrong to actively support the ruin of millions of American livelihoods, 401k plans, and small businesses, all in the name of scorched earth partisanship,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates wrote Wednesday. “Default would needlessly plunge the country into economic chaos, collapse, and catastrophe while giving our competitors like China an historic boost against us.”
BIDEN’S DOCUMENTS SCANDAL CASTS SHADOW OVER PRESIDENCY
That is why congressional Republicans increased the country’s borrowing authority three times under former President Donald Trump “without conditions or playing chicken with our credit rating,” according to Bates.
“This president and the American people will not stand for unprecedented economic vandalism. Full stop,” he said.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced last week that the country will have to rely on “extraordinary measures” to pay its debts as of Thursday, though the “X date” when the nation could default on its obligations will likely fall in June depending on individual and corporate tax federal revenues.
The White House has insisted it should not have to negotiate, but House Republicans, now in the majority as one chamber of a divided government, are similarly adamant about the need for spending cuts.
“We cannot raise the debt ceiling,” Biggs, a House Speaker Kevin McCarthy objector, tweeted this week. “Democrats have carelessly spent our taxpayer money and devalued our currency. They’ve made their bed, so they must lie in it.”
We cannot raise the debt ceiling.
Democrats have carelessly spent our taxpayer money and devalued our currency.
They’ve made their bed, so they must lie in it.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) January 17, 2023
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Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has proposed what has been described as a “payment prioritization plan,” underscoring the importance of debt service payments, Social Security, Medicare, and veterans benefits, in addition to military funding.
