President Biden said that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a “terrible deal” with the right part of his party over spending, which has made a shutdown of the government more likely.
In a future interview, Biden will say that McCarthy is putting his speakership ahead of the needs of the people by making a deal with “MAGA Republicans” who were loyal to former President Trump and putting McCarthy’s speakership in danger.
“The speaker has done a terrible thing. “In order to keep the speakership, he’s willing to do things that, I think, he knows are against the Constitution,” he told ProPublica’s John Harwood in an interview set to air on Sunday.
“There is a group of MAGA Republicans who really want to change how the system works from the ground up,” the president said. This is what most worries me. Disputes between Republicans in the House have made it harder to pass some of the 12 spending bills that are needed to keep the government running.
McCarthy and a few extreme Republicans haven’t agreed on how to cut spending by the government. As the deadline of September 30 comes, Democrats have said that the conflict is the only reason why the government will soon shut down.
Thursday, the Senate passed a short-term funding bill to keep the government from shutting down. However, Friday, the House couldn’t agree on a similar plan because of differences between the parties.
Democrats have said that the Republicans in the House are not sticking to an agreement to cut the government budget by a small amount. McCarthy has pushed for more cuts, while Republicans who are more radical want to go even further.
Neither of these plans is expected to make it through the Senate. McCarthy’s job as speaker is also in question because of the conflict, as right holdouts hint at a vote to get rid of him.