On 5/28/2023, Speaker McCarthy, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) speak about the debt ceiling deal reached with President Biden.

McCarthy: Finalizing an agreement with Biden, he wouldn’t negotiate with us for 97 days.

McCarthy: We worked through the night last night. We’re finalizing the language on an agreement with the president that I believe is worthy of the American people… No one thought, at any given day, that we would be where we are today. The president said he wouldn’t negotiate with us for 97 days. He wouldn’t even allow us to talk after we passed a bill. We were able to get in, but it wasn’t until the final two weeks that we would really be able to sit down and communicate with one another.

A lot of hours
I’m sorry, and this is Congressman Garret Graves. He did shave this morning for you. I feel like I need to bend over for this microphone. Hey, um… What? Uh… Yes. All right, good for a lot of hours. Yes, we’ve been together. Good, good friend.

New born today to inherit $4.5M in debt, welfare programs require to work to help yourself
Graves: The Committee for Responsible Federal Budget put together numbers just recently, and they quantify that a child …

Q: two-year deal & non-enforceable funding targets? A: Next Congress will have to change that number
Reporter: This is a two-year deal followed by years of non-enforceable funding targets. That’s not the time you’re dealing with budget caps that you guys were originally seeking. So, how do you convince the Republican conference that this is truly transformational when it comes to reducing the debt and deficit?

A: So, look, first, we’ve been putting in place spending caps. We saw with the last caps agreement is they eventually waived them, and then we had a compromise. And the compromise was we would set spending levels for those additional years, knowing full well that the next Congress could even undo our spending caps. But now, we’ve moored the process to spending restraint and a glide path for how we fund our government. So, this does have an effect next Congress. Next Congress will have to change that number through the legislative process, just like they changed the number on sequestration, which is the enforcement mechanism for this Congress. So, two different ways to achieve the similar outcome, fully recognizing that Congress legislates and can undo existing laws.

McHenry: WH spent more money than any other president, This is the most conservative spending package
House Republicans, trying to drive spending as low as we possibly can and enact it and a White House who spent more money. This White House spent more money than any other president outside of wartime. So, the difference between our perspective and their perspective is enormous. So, for us to draw them down and actually have spending restraint year over year and within a congress is truly transformational and different than what we’ve experienced in recent years in Congress. This is the most conservative spending package in my service in Congress, and this is my 10th term.

Graves: not just 2 years enforceable, These are 6 years of enforceable caps
Graves: Can I just clarify one thing? You said that there were two years enforceable and four years not. I want to be very clear, it is six years of enforceable caps. Okay, there are different enforceability mechanisms for the first two years as compared to the remaining six, but I think it’s important. These are six years of enforceable caps.

Graves: nothing you can do, next Democratic control Congress return to reckless spending
something that’s important to keep in mind and one of the things we realized in our negotiations, there has never been a 10-year deal that has been abided by. As the chairman just said, Congress always comes in and changes it. We did score Limit Safe Grow over 10 years as we started studying some of these previous deals and realized they don’t ever abide by that, and there was some pushback during negotiations. We realized that a six-year was a bit more honest and transparent in regard to the savings, and we believe that that’s going to generate somewhere around 2 trillion in savings from those caps alone, not even talking about some of the other huge policies.

Well, sure, but I mean, keep in mind that any year, you could lose the House, Senate, and as you could have Democratic control, the House, Senate, and White House all over again, and you could have us return to reckless spending. There’s nothing we can do that doesn’t, excuse me, there’s nothing we can do that binds the next Congress. There’s nothing you can do. So, what we’ve tried to put in is the strongest enforcement mechanism to truly change that trajectory, put us on a financially sustainable path, and I think that this was a really good win.

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Transformational Debt Agreement with Biden, 2 yrs enforceable? These are 6 yrs of enforceable caps