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US President Joe Biden will deliver a scathing critique of Republican policies in a speech in Virginia Beach on Tuesday afternoon, where he will warn of GOP plans to cut access to federal health care programs.
Speaking at the Kempsville Recreation Center, Biden will point to GOP proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut funding to Medicaid, two programs that nearly one in four Virginians rely on for coverage.
The speech comes a week before the White House is scheduled The spat over spending cuts and the debt ceiling continues as the White House and House Republicans prepare to present Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget to Congress.
Republicans have insisted that Biden cut spending as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling – a proposal that Biden will not negotiate. While he agrees that federal spending needs to be reduced, he strongly opposes tying it to the debt ceiling. Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the White House earlier this month to discuss the subject, but no agreement was reached.
The raising of the credit limit does not authorize any new expenditure; This allows the government to borrow more money to meet existing commitments. And since the federal government consistently spends more than it takes in tax revenue, lawmakers have to raise the debt limit from time to time. Failure to lift the debt ceiling could cause the government to default on its debt and halt daily operations, causing potential turmoil in markets and the economy.
The Treasury Department has already initiated a series of extraordinary steps to ensure the government continues to pay its bills, and it expects those measures will be enough to avoid a default until at least early June. But if Congress doesn’t raise or suspend the debt ceiling by then, it could wreak economic havoc around the world.
Biden has asked House Republicans to submit their own budget proposal with the desired spending cuts before he passes his own. In Tuesday’s speech, the president will point to the GOP’s existing proposals to argue that the party ultimately aims to undo those gains.
Because McCarthy has yet to introduce a budget proposal, it is unclear how many of the ideas cited by Biden are being actively considered by the House GOP. McCarthy has said that cuts to the popular Social Security and Medicare programs are “off the table” in any debt limit talks.