Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday that President Joe Biden is avoiding meeting with him, and needs to “change his behavior” right away.
“I’ll come tonight,” said McCarthy of meeting with Biden.
The House GOP leaders held a presser on the subject of HR 1, an energy bill that passed the House on Thursday morning but faces an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate and with President Biden.
McCarthy was asked about a variety of subjects, including the ongoing debt ceiling and spending debates.
The Speaker said that Biden is avoiding meeting with him, even though he has previously and repeatedly stated his willingness and intent to do so.
“He said he wanted to meet further,” said McCarthy. “He actually tweeted out afterwards that he wanted to have further discussions. He told us the very next morning, not just myself, but he told those members who went to the prayer breakfast that we’re going to meet.”
“He told the Democratic Congress on the retreat that he’s going to have a meeting with me,” he added. “He apparently doesn’t want to meet.”
After listing some of the beefs the GOP has with the Biden record, McCarthy again brought up the president’s willingness to talk with Republicans.
“So I’m sorry, he needs to change his behavior. Go back to the person he said he was that you need to sit down,” he said. “Our government is designed to have compromise. We don’t have a preconceived idea of where it has to go.”
As he was wrapping up, McCarthy said that he is ready to meet immediately.
“I’m ready at any time. At any moment. I’ll come tonight,” he said.
Unfortunately, the president — you know, back in 2011, we called them the Biden talks. I sat down with the president on February 1st. We had a good discussion. He said he wanted to meet further. He actually tweeted out afterwards that he wanted to have further discussions. He told us the very next morning, not just myself, but he told those members who went to the prayer breakfast that we’re going to meet. He told the Democratic Congress on the retreat that he’s going to have a meeting with me. He apparently doesn’t want to meet.
And I don’t understand why. We’re very reasonable, responsible. What we do know, especially after the Congressional Budget Office came out that American taxpayers will have to pay $10.5 trillion in interest over the next ten years, even though for the last 80 years we’ve only paid 9 trillion. We do know for the first time in American history, based upon the Democrats’ rise in spending, more than 6 trillion more dollars. 6 trillion more. What happened?
Well, if you studied economics, if you had the pleasure of years passed, Milton Friedman, one of the best economist ever to come out of America, told you that there’s only one place inflation begins or starts, and that’s with government when they spend too much.
We’ve watched interest rates have to rise based upon what the Democrats have done. Now we watch that there’s a bank crisis, but we’ve got a president in office that seems to treat issues the same way. Afghanistan he missed and set us back decades. We watched him tell us that inflation was transitory, that it wouldn’t sustain itself. We watched him slow to action. And we asked back in 2015 that he give the Ukrainians Javelins so they could defend themselves so Russia would not invade.
Now we’re watching him do the exact same thing, but it’s more dangerous because he’s dealing with the American economy. I don’t understand why he thinks the debt ceiling just gets raised. We’re sitting here believing that if we curb our spending, what will happen? Lower inflation.
If he signs HR 1, it will lower inflation, bring more American jobs, the global environment will be stronger. And you know what? He no longer will have to get in a plane and go to Saudi Arabia and be embarrassed for begging for more oil. We can make American oil with American workers.
So I’m sorry, he needs to change his behavior. Go back to the person he said he was that you need to sit down. Our government is designed to have compromise. We don’t have a preconceived idea of where it has to go.
But I think there’s three things that we should look at. We should be able to lower, save, and grow. Lower our spending, save the taxpayer money, and grow our economy, just like HR 1, you know, we talk about what it will do to energy. But if you want to build anything in America, you need HR 1. You want to build a road, you want to build a bridge, you want to have a permitting process to put solar or wind — on average 5 to 7 years. And you wonder why China continues to jump ahead. Well, we say no more than sign HR 1. It will make America stronger.
But more important, Mr. President: I’m ready at any time. At any moment. I’ll come tonight. It doesn’t make it difficult to sit down and negotiate and find common ground to make America a little stronger and make sure we stop overspending.
