Rep. Rose to Newsmax: Biden Childish on Debt Ceiling

Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., told Newsmax on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s reaction to the GOP-led House’s proposal on raising the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling combined with spending cuts is like his 2-year-old son having a temper tantrum.

The House last week passed a plan backed by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion and reduce spending by about $4.5 trillion. The bill moves to the Democratic-controlled Senate, but Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., insist on a clean debit-ceiling bill with no spending cuts.

“The president has to understand that he’s got to come to the negotiating table and sit down with Speaker McCarthy and make a deal,” Rose, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said on “American Agenda.” “The House is active. We’ve solved this problem in a reasonable, responsible and sensible way. The ball is clearly in Leader Chuck Schumer’s court on the Senate side and in the president’s court, and the president has been a bit obstinate.

“I’ve got a 2-year-old son and he throws temper tantrums sometimes, did one earlier today, and that’s what the president’s doing.”

Rose noted that Biden has been in government service for 50 years and is a veteran of debt ceiling debates. Rose said if Americans are worried about how Wall Street or their benefits will be affected by the debt-ceiling crisis, “it’s in the president’s court right now.”

If the U.S. hits the debt limit sometime this summer, it would default on its loans and could lose its reserve currency status.

“It’s time for the president to get serious and avoid the default,” Rose said. “… It’s on his back to actually sit down, do the adult thing and negotiate with leader McCarthy and come to an agreement or accept what the House has passed.”

Rose also touched on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates Wednesday by a quarter point to 5.1%, its highest rate in 16 years, in an effort to curb inflation. The Feds’ numerous rate increases has dropped inflation from 9.1% in June 2022 to 5% in March, but well above the goal of 2%.

“I think the Fed will continue to push rates higher until they until they tame inflation, which would be by their measure to get it under 2%,” Rose said. “So, we still have a ways to go. History would tell us that some people would say the interest rates have to get a couple of points ahead of inflation for it to really start to turn inflation around in a significant way.”

Rose said the Federal Reserve is facing obstacles because of government spending and regulations under the Biden administration, something Republican lawmakers have been trying to tame.

“The Fed is fighting the fiscal side, so we have the government continuing to spend money as though we’re trying to boost the economy,” Rose said. “That’s part of what we on the Republican side have been trying to get under control.

“Secondly, inflation is partly driven by the supply side, and this administration has been determined to put in place costly regulations that deter productivity both here and elsewhere, and so that ends up having an impact on prices as well and works against what the Fed is trying to accomplish.”

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