President Joe Biden's proposed $6.8 trillion budget is "not serious," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday, and he warned the president not to "play games" with the nation's debt ceiling.
"It's not serious for the current time we live in," the California Republican told Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo. "I've sat with this president and I want to negotiate with this president. This is what we've done every time before."
But Biden, he said, has "ignored the ability" to negotiate and to show the world and the United States that "we're serious about getting our debt under control."
"We will find savings in how we spend our money," he said."We will prioritize in the right areas and eliminate waste. This budget talks more about equality and climate change than it does in dealing with China and fentanyl and putting the workforce back in the workplace and that's a real challenge."
Further, McCarthy said that Biden delayed the budget by more than a month, and with the proposals he's making, that "only weakens America," and as a result, the president is missing an opportunity to show leadership to the United States and the world.
He added that even Democrats won't vote for Biden's budget.
"Listen to what the congressional budget office says," said McCarthy. "In the next ten years, we will pay as Americans, hard-working taxpayers, over $10.5 trillion on interest…to put that in perspective, since 1940 till today, in the last 80 years, we've only paid $9 trillion in interest. That's why this budget is not serious."
Congress, meanwhile, is about to roll the Lower Energy Cost Act out in a push to restore energy independence to the country, said McCarthy
"If we lower the cost of energy on all forms of energy, not picking one over the other, what happens is more American jobs," said McCarthy.
The speaker also spoke about the significance of Saudi Arabia and Iran coming to a peace agreement, but said he's concerned about the move as it "looks a lot like 1936 all over again," with the axis of power lying with Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran."
McCarthy on Sunday also defended his decision to give tapes from the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol to Fox News's Tucker Carlson.
"My goal is transparency," he said, adding that he plans to "slowly roll out” access of official tapes to other news organizations after he gave Carlson exclusive access to the footage.
“Let everyone see them [and] bring their own judgment," said McCarthy.
Democrats have criticized McCarthy for giving exclusive access to the 41,000 hours of tapes to Carlson, and Republicans have also pushed back against the Fox News host's attempts to frame the protests as a peaceful visit to the Capitol.
He also maintained that he didn't "give the tapes" to Carlson but allowed him to "come to see them, just like an exclusive with anybody else," as his goal is "transparency."
“One thing I understand in America is we should have equal justice," McCarthy said. "Why did I watch federal courts, why did I watch cities burn, federal agencies or something, and nobody arrested there? I think we should have equal justice across this country."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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