U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver a strong critique of Republican policies during a speech in Virginia Beach on Tuesday afternoon, warning of GOP plans to reduce access to federal health-care programs.
Speaking at the Kempsville Recreation Center, Biden will highlight GOP proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut funding to Medicaid, two programs that nearly 1 in 4 Virginians depend on for coverage.
This speech comes just over a week before the White House is set to present Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget to Congress and amid ongoing conflicts between the White House and House Republicans over spending cuts and the debt ceiling.
Republicans have insisted that Biden cut spending as part of a deal to raise the debt limit, a proposition Biden refuses to negotiate.
While Biden agrees that federal spending needs to be reduced, he is firmly against tying it to the debt ceiling. Earlier this month, Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the White House to discuss the issue, but no agreements were reached.
Raising the debt limit does not authorize any new spending; it allows the government to borrow more money to meet existing commitments.
Since the federal government consistently spends more than it collects in tax revenue, lawmakers must periodically raise the debt ceiling. Failing to lift the debt ceiling could lead to a government default on its debt and halt daily operations, potentially causing turmoil in markets and the economy.
The Treasury Department has already implemented a series of extraordinary measures to keep paying the government’s bills, expecting those steps to suffice until at least early June. However, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit by then, it could wreak economic havoc globally.
Biden has urged House Republicans to present their own budget proposal with the desired spending cuts before criticizing his. In Tuesday’s speech, the president will refer to existing GOP proposals to argue that the party ultimately aims to slash benefits.
Since McCarthy has not yet presented a budget proposal, it is unclear how many of the ideas cited by Biden are currently under consideration by the House GOP. McCarthy has stated that cuts to the popular Social Security and Medicare programs are “off the table” in any debt ceiling discussions.
