(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . McCarthy's big problem on debt ceiling, budget: Impossible math [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-07 Because the White House and the Senate are not rolling over for McCarthy, he’s scrapped that idea and is left with . . . cutting “wasteful Washington spending.” He said that three times in his little speech Tuesday. Exactly what those cuts will be, he didn’t say. He did say that “Defaulting on our debt is not an option,” but he also said “neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates, and an economy that doesn’t work for working Americans.” He reiterated that tax part in a conference meeting Tuesday morning: “We are not going to raise taxes and we are not going to pass a clean debt ceiling.” x 🚨NEWS: @SpeakerMcCarthy, speaking in closed House GOP meeting, rules out raising taxes in debt limit deal. MCCARTHY in the room: “I was very clear to [Biden]: we are not going to raise taxes "We are not going to raise taxes and we are not going to pass a clean debt ceiling." — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 7, 2023 “We must move towards a balanced budget that insists on genuine accountability for every dollar we spend. Future generations deserve nothing less,” McCarthy said in his little speech. “A responsible debt limit increase that begins to eliminate wasteful Washington spending and puts us on a path towards a balanced budget is not only the right place to start, it’s the only place to start.” Ok, so let’s talk about a balanced budget given they’ve ruled out cuts to social insurance programs, the Pentagon, and veterans while at the same time refusing to raise taxes. Where is that “wasteful” spending that’s going to close the roughly $20 trillion budget hole over the next decade? It sure isn’t going to be found in “eliminat[ing] all the money spent on ‘wokeism’” as McCarthy proposed. It would mean getting rid of pretty much every other domestic spending program. Tax Policy Center’s Howard Gleckman laid it out recently. That “wasteful” spending McCarthy is calling out includes “programs dear to [Republican] voters, such as farm subsidies, western water projects, border security, and the air traffic control system.” And food safety and environmental protection and heating assistance to low-income seniors and supplemental nutrition to children and, well, pretty much everything. Hence having no plan for ransoming the hostage of the debt ceiling. Because no one wants their fingerprints on any proposal that cuts stuff that matters to their voters back home. So far what they’ve got in “wasteful” spending to be cut is all that “unspent COVID money,” (about $157 billion that remains unobligated) and repealing the $80 billion Congress passed last year to fund the IRS, which would actually cost the nation $114 billion in uncollected taxes over the next decade. That would mean their big ideas for cutting spending would net about $123 billion for the next decade. The budget for this fiscal year is $1.7 trillion. So, yeah, great plan guys. RELATED STORIES [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/7/2151593/-McCarthy-s-big-problem-on-debt-ceiling-budget-Impossible-math Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/