Kevin McCarthy's debt ceiling plan, Part II

There's no doubt that Joe Biden and Speaker McCarthy don't see eye-to-eye on the debt ceiling or the U.S. economic priorities. During Speaker McCarthy's speech at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, Speaker McCarthy criticized the Biden administration's economic policies. Further, Speaker McCarthy proposed a blueprint for the economy that he's titled " limit, save, and grow."

Speaker McCarthy explained his plan by saying "In the coming weeks, the House will vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling into next year, save taxpayers trillions of dollars, make us less dependent on China, and curb high inflation, all without touching Social Security or Medicare. Simply put, it puts us on a responsible fiscal path in three ways: limit, save, and grow. First, we will limit federal spending. In the past two years, discretionary spending in Washington has exploded by over 17 percent. That’s faster than GDP growth and even inflation. And keep in mind, that new spending does not include the trillions of dollars of COVID-era spending."

Speaker McCarthy continued, saying this:

From 2011 through 2021, the Federal Government operated under binding spending caps. Though these caps occasionally changed because of bipartisan debt limit negotiations, they were largely successful: discretionary spending flatlined and overall spending growth slowed dramatically.

Our legislation accomplishes the same goal by returning the federal government to 2022 spending levels—and then limiting the growth of spending over the next 10 years to 1 percent annual growth.

Don’t believe anyone who says these are draconian limits. They’re the same spending levels we operated under just last October. And we make sure that our veterans and our service members are taken care of.

But the bloated, overgrown bureaucracy that has expanded under President Biden needs to be pruned, and that’s exactly what we’ll do. If Washington wants to spend more, it will have to come together to find savings elsewhere, just like every household in America does. This will restore discipline to Washington budgeting and help put an end to reckless spending that caused inflation.

Second – we will save taxpayers money.

Next, Speaker McCarthy criticizes Biden's FY2024 budget proposal:

In his unserious budget proposal, President Biden wants to spend more this year than the government did during the height of the pandemic. Just think about that. House Republicans believe the opposite should happen: before we borrow another dime, we owe it to our children to save money everywhere. Our proposal will examine wasteful Washington spending and executive overreach in all its forms. Among other items, it will claw back tens of billions of dollars in unspent COVID-related money.

The money passed in the American Rescue Plan and some of the other Democrat binge-spending bills were extravagant in the extreme. Despite that, Democrats are already calling Speaker McCarthy's proposal extreme:

"Speaker McCarthy is holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, threatening our economy and hardworking Americans’ retirement," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Mr. McCarthy "continues to bumble our country towards a catastrophic default."

I'll be exceptionally clear about this fight. Speaker McCarthy isn't holding anything hostage. He's laid out a plan that brings out-of-control spending back under control. Speaker McCarthy's plan doesn't threaten the economy or the people's retirements. Biden's plan, which is supported unanimously by House and Senate Democrats, threatens Social Security and Medicare with weak economic growth, inflation and out-of-control spending.

Finally, the Democrats' unflinching stubbornness is forcing the U.S. closer to the brink of catastrophe. The principles laid out by Speaker McCarthy will grow the economy, return the U.S. to energy independence and stop inflation. The path that the Democrats have taken us on has led to high gas prices and a slowing economy. This says it perfectly: