House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington Sunday rejected President Joe Biden's call to increase taxes as part of any deal to raise the nation's debt limit, saying that move would only "exacerbate inflation."
"Number one, it's not on the table for discussion," the Texas Republican said on ABC News's "This Week." "Number two, taxes right now would only be passed on to consumers at higher prices."
Biden, while speaking to reporters in Hiroshima, Japan after meeting with G-7 leaders, said the latest offers from Republicans in the talks on lifting the government debt ceiling are "unacceptable," but added that he's willing to cut spending if there are tax adjustments to reach a deal.
But Arrington said raising taxes is a nonstarter with conservative lawmakers in the House.
"You couldn't get tax policies and tax revenues [passed] in the Senate," he said, adding that "we certainly weren't going to put it in the House bill."
Further, he pointed out that given the revenue increases included last year in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, "the last thing we want to do is raise another tax."
Arrington, when asked if he is confident that the United States will not default on its obligations, responded that House Republicans have done their job, and now, it's up to Biden and whether he'll listen to the warnings from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who says the government could default as soon as June 1.
"We listened to Janet Yellen and her warning that we needed to move with urgency and purpose," Arrington said. "The question is, will President Biden listen to Janet Yellen, his own secretary, and with the window closing on the x-date, the default date, then respond? We've done our job."
The congressman said Republicans want to cut federal spending, which has grown too much after the COVID-19 pandemic, and he said lawmakers must "rightsize and rein in this bureaucratic bloat."
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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