Within minutes of Kevin McCarthy being elected Speaker of the House, President Biden made it clear that cutting Social Security and Medicare is a no-go.
President Biden said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:
Jill and I congratulate Kevin McCarthy on his election as Speaker of the House.
The American people expect their leaders to govern in a way that puts their needs above all else, and that is what we need to do now.
As I said after the midterms, I am prepared to work with Republicans when I can and voters made clear that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well. Now that the leadership of the House of Representatives has been decided it is time for that process to begin.
Today we learned that my plan to build an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out has achieved the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. And that we made 2021 and 2022 the best years for job growth on record.
It’s imperative that we continue that economic progress, not set it back. It is imperative that we protect Social Security and Medicare, not slash them. It is imperative that we defend our national security, not defund it. These are some of the choices before us.
As the last two years show, we can do profound things for the country when we do them together.
For example, this week I traveled to Kentucky to highlight the growing benefits that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is bringing to communities all over the country.
This is a time to govern responsibly and to ensure that we’re putting the interests of American families first.
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It isn’t a coincidence that President Biden immediately put a red line around any cuts to Social Security and Medicare. House Republicans and McCarthy have been suggesting for months that they would use something like the debt ceiling to extract cuts to Social Security and Medicare from Democrats.
The House rules change McCarthy promised to those who made him Speaker of the House, for now, was that he would attach spending cuts to any legislation to fund the government or raise the debt ceiling.
President Biden is already setting the parameters and telling Speaker McCarthy to forget about cutting Social Security and Medicare.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
