House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that Wall Street should be concerned about the political impasse over the U.S. debt ceiling as the country inches closer to a possible payment default.
The California Republican, in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s “Balance of Power” said he is “very concerned” about reaching a deal with Democrats on the debt limit. But he remained opposed to increasing the nation’s debt limit without curbing government spending.
“We are never going to move a bill that just raises the debt ceiling,” McCarthy said.
President Joe Biden has opposed the GOP effort to leverage the debt limit to extract deep spending cuts.
“Unfortunately, I tried to sit down with the president and the president won’t communicate,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy didn’t provide details of any emerging Republican deficit-reducing proposal they want in exchange for votes to raise the nation’s borrowing ceiling.
But he did suggest that House Republicans “might make some news” when they return to Washington later this month.
Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats seeking a clean increase repeatedly have called on McCarthy and his team to make public their spending-cut proposals.
A default would happen this summer if the two parties can’t reach an agreement.
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(Bloomberg News writer Annmarie Hordern contributed to this story.)
