Anne Arundel Today

WASHINGTON, DC – On May 24, 2023, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC to discuss Republicans’ insistence on draconian cuts moving us closer to default. Below are excerpts from his interview and a link to the interview: 

Click here to watch the full interview.

ON REPUBLICANS’ INSISTENCE ON DRACONIAN CUTS MOVING US CLOSER TO DEFAULT

“…This is a phony issue. The Speaker talks about the fact that defaulting is not an option, that's what he said in his Wall Street speech. We agree, default is not an option. There's not a difference between the two parties [on that]. There's no concession to one or the other. We both believe the same thing – we ought to do that, we ought to raise the debt limit. Now, he talks about spending less. Where do you spend money? You spend it in the Appropriations process. That's where you spend it, not on the debt limit. That's where you decide how much you are going to spend. He says, cut from last year's spending. [Republicans] control the House of Representatives, pass an Appropriation bill that spends less than we spent last year. We will see if he can do that. He couldn't do it this week – there were four bills scheduled to be passed, they had to jettison them. Why? They didn't have the votes.”

“So when [Speaker McCarthy] says we raised the debt limit, he did in a bill that was a pretense – a pretend bill. A bill that said we're going to do something when they don't have the ability in their own Caucus to do it. So first of all, let's stop this phony crisis. Let's stop this tanking the confidence of the American economy and indeed the global economy by having this phony fight…I believe there are the votes on the Floor of the House of Representatives, if the Speaker – and he says he won’t do it – for a clean debt limit.”

“The President showed him a real budget that, if we had the Majority, I think we could pass. [Speaker McCarthy] can't pass his budget that he passed because it was a pretense. It's sad that we continually have this drama on a phony issue and pretend to the American people – and if you are going to represent the American people, we need to tell them the truth – the debt limit is not where you really deal with additional debt. It just deals with paying your bills – that's all it deals with. Additional debt occurs in the appropriations process. They are in charge of the House of Representatives – pass Appropriation bills that carry out their budget. I don't think they can do it, very frankly because they are draconian. They cut education, they cut veterans' benefits, they cut health care, they cut things that people absolutely need to have. They know they need to have them. When the rubber touches the road, people are going to find out, no, no, no, we don't want that, nor do they want their economy to be tanked by a phony issue undermining the confidence of America, of our economy, and world investors.”

ON DEMOCRATS’ DISCHARGE PETITION

“…We only need five or six Republicans to act responsibly. Only five or six to act responsibly so that we do not put the economy at risk by tanking the debt limit extension. So, I think we can get there. That's one option.”

Original source can be found here.