Rep. Nancy Mace says she supports Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling strategy to force spending cuts
By Shania Shelton and Morgan Rimmer, CNN
Rep. Nancy Mace on Sunday said she supports Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s strategy of refusing to lift the debt limit, if Republicans win back the House, unless Democrats in the White House agree to spending cuts.
“And I can tell you, I sit on the Oversight Committee, where we look at waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal agency level, and there is waste in every single agency,” Mace said to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
The Republican from South Carolina said that when Covid-19 began, businesses had to make tough decisions about how they would keep their doors open, and the federal government continued to get record revenue without making those tough decisions.
“We can find ways to be more responsible with our spending, just like we forced companies and businesses to during Covid. So, that’s one of the ways that I would approach it,” she said.
President Joe Biden said on Friday that he will not relent to Republican lawmakers threatening to send the nation into default if he doesn’t meet their demands but he doesn’t support Democrats’ efforts to abolish the debt limit entirely.
When asked by Tapper about legislating and meeting with leaders of the Senate and people in the White House to come up with a way to reduce spending, Mace noted Republicans had been “shut out of many of those conversations.”
“We have seen Republicans for a year-and-a-half now talk about more responsible spending, looking at the deficit spending in these bills that have been passed talking about how we can move this country forward. And we have been shut out.”
In a separate appearance on “State of the Union” on Sunday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he sided with increasing the debt ceiling.
“But what Republicans are basically doing — and I hope everybody understands this — they are saying look, we are prepared to let the United States default on its debt, not raise the debt ceiling, unless — you talk about making cuts.”
Sanders added “You know what they’re talking about? Cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Is that irresponsible? It is absolutely irresponsible. You don’t use the debt ceiling to do that.”
Mace also indicated to Tapper that she would not automatically be on board with impeaching Biden if Republicans take the House in November. However, she didn’t dismiss it completely either, noting allegations of high crimes and misdemeanors “would have to be investigated.”
“I am not interested in playing tit-for-tat. I am not interested in retaliation. Impeachment has been weaponized over the years, and we’ve seen that. I really want us to be focused on the economy, on tackling inflation with responsible policy,” she said.
Mace, who has travelled to Ukraine since the war began, dodged when asked if she supported McCarthy’s comment to Punchbowl that House Republicans would not write a “blank check” to Ukraine if they are in the majority.
“It is something that we’re going to have to find balance on next year,” she said, due to the threat of a recession and Republican promises to cut government spending.
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