Ahead of next Tuesday’s high-stakes meeting on the debt limit between President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the three other top congressional leaders, the White House is dialing up the pressure on Republicans.
Biden on Friday used the latest jobs report to argue that Republicans are threatening to undo the economic progress made under his administration.
“Whether you pay the debt or not doesn’t have a damn thing to do with what your budget is,” Biden said. “Let’s get it straight: They’re trying to hold the debt hostage for us to agree to some draconian cuts, magnificently difficult and damaging cuts. But unfortunately, they’re threatening to undo all this progress by letting us default. … The last thing this country needs after all we’ve been through is a manufactured crisis and that’s what this is: A manufactured crisis. That’s what it is from beginning to end, it’s a manufactured crisis driven by MAGA Republicans in the Congress.”
As Biden tries to use the bully pulpit to win support for his position, top administration officials including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainerd have reportedly been calling corporate CEOs and urging them to press Congress to avoid a debt default, according to Punchbowl News.
The administration may have some work to do to sway public opinion. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that, while Americans largely agree with Biden’s position that the debt limit and federal spending cuts should be handled separately, they are still narrowly divided over who would take the blame if the government defaults on its debt.
The poll finds that 39% say they would blame congressional Republicans while 36% say they would blame Biden and 16% said they would blame both sides. Among independents, 37% say they would blame the GOP compared to 29% pointing at Biden and 24% saying the two sides get equal blame.
Those numbers may suggest a slight advantage for Biden, but they may provide some comfort to Republicans given that the gap on the blame question is much narrower than the one on the question of policy. Fully 58% of those polled say they agree that the debt limit and federal spending cuts should be handled separately, versus 26% who agree with the GOP position that Congress should allow the government to pay its debts only if Biden agrees to spending cuts. The 58% majority in favor of Biden’s position has also slipped 7 percentage points since February, including sharp drops among Democrats and independents.
The poll of 1,006 adults was conducted April 28 through May 3 and has an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
