With just eleven days until the deadline to raise the debt ceiling before the United States goes into default, ABC’s This Week co-moderator Martha Raddatz brought on Texas Republican Congressman Jodey Arrington to harangue him about the recently stalled debt ceiling negotiations and tried to suggest Republicans will be responsible for letting the nation default.
Raddatz started off on the wrong foot with her question to Arrington, falsely suggesting that Republicans are the ones pushing the United States to the brink despite the fact that it took President Biden nearly 100 days to even come to the negotiating table: “Congressman, the President said he can’t guarantee that Republicans won’t force a default. Could Republicans let that happen?”
Arrington set the record straight:
Martha, I would suggest that Republicans won’t let it happen because we passed a debt ceiling proposal that raises the debt ceiling. And it does it responsibly and we are the only chamber. We are only—the only part of this tri-part negotiation that’s actually done its job. The President has to respond. He has not submitted a single proposal and the fact is he hasn’t engaged the process in over three months. And Chuck Schumer in the Senate hasn’t put a single dollar amount. Not even an alternative proposal with alternative spending reductions.
Parroting the Democratic Party line of the White House, Raddatz huffed that “obviously they would disagree with you on that.”
But the truth is there is no room for disagreement. As Speaker Kevin McCarthy revealed during an interview Friday night on The Mark Levin Show that on “February 1st, I went to sit down with the President. I said, you know what? Let’s put this country back on the right track. Let’s get our fiscal house in order and let’s do it. When you want to be able to increase the debt ceiling, he said, yeah, let’s work, let’s negotiate. Then he ignored me for 97 straight days. So Republicans went and passed our own bill…”
This entire negotiation process could’ve been started on February 1 if Biden didn’t insist on holding up in the White House refusing to negotiate. Instead, America is sitting on the edge of its chairs waiting to see if Biden and Senate Democrats push us into default.
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The transcript is below:
ABC’s This Week
5/21/2023
9:09:48 a.m. EasternMARTHA RADDATZ: Congressman, the President said he can’t guarantee that Republicans won’t force a default. Could Republicans let that happen?
REP. JODEY ARRINGTON: Martha, I would suggest that Republicans won’t let it happen because we passed a debt ceiling proposal that raises the debt ceiling. And it does it responsibly and we are the only chamber. We are only—the only part of this tri-part negotiation that’s actually done its job. The President has to respond. He has not submitted a single proposal and the fact is he hasn’t engaged the process in over three months. And Chuck Schumer in the Senate hasn’t put a single dollar amount. Not even an alternative proposal with alternative spending reductions—
RADDATZ: So, so, Congressman!
ARRINGTON: And he knows he can’t pass a clean debt ceiling.
RADDATZ: Congressman, obviously they would disagree with you on that.