Biden takes to the road and stays on offense after McCarthy debt limit meeting

President Joe Biden’s first port of call after hosting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the White House for debt ceiling talks is not a return trip to Congress but a political speech in a New York battleground district.

But while Biden, his aides, and Democrats on Capitol Hill have been ramping up their criticism of Republicans for demanding spending cuts in exchange for extending the country’s borrowing cap, the power of the president’s bully pulpit is being questioned.

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The messaging skirmish over the debt ceiling has only begun, according to Northeastern University political science Chairman Costas Panagopoulos of the remarks scheduled before Biden’s meeting with McCarthy, McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

“More Americans would still blame Republicans than Biden if the debt ceiling negotiations fall apart and the economy takes a hit, so the president still has leverage to push back on proposed cuts,” Panagopoulos told the Washington Examiner. “But Biden still has to make a strong case to the American people about how his budget would affect their lives and why the GOP plan would hurt them.”

A Washington Post-ABC poll published last week found almost 40% of respondents would hold Republicans responsible if there is a default, while 35% would say that of Biden. Another 16% contended both parties would be culpable if the Treasury Department no longer has the cash on hand or the ability to use so-called extraordinary measures to pay the country’s bills from this summer. But almost 60% agree with Biden that the debt ceiling and spending cuts should be handled separately, emphasizing problems with his messaging. Roughly a quarter side with the GOP in that the borrowing cap should be tied to spending reductions.

McCarthy, who has a 222-213 majority and the speakership after 15 ballots, does not have the standing to go toe to toe with Biden, according to Rutgers University history, journalism, and media studies professor David Greenberg.

“It is like [former House Speaker Newt] Gingrich trying to take down [former President Bill] Clinton,” he said. “People just had much more respect for Clinton, believed he was acting in the country’s interest, and that Gingrich was playing politics. I think the same thing is going on here.”

Simultaneously, McCarthy did defy expectations by coalescing House Republicans behind the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which 43 Senate Republicans co-signed last weekend. Meanwhile, Democrats have publicly and privately expressed concerns about Biden’s debt ceiling strategy, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who described it as “not rational,” “not reasonable, and “not practical.”

“It’s been 100 days of Biden obstruction and hypocrisy,” Republican National Committee spokesman Tommy Pigott said. “It’s time Biden stopped threatening default in order to double down on his destructive inflationary agenda. American families who are suffering today and those who will have to pay the price for generations to come deserve better.”

Biden should make this “personal” and “paint a convincing picture” of how Republican spending cuts could affect peoples’ pocketbooks, Panagopoulos said. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has reportedly started phoning CEOs to put pressure on the GOP as markets remain confident so far.

“Another challenge is getting voters’ attention to focus on the issue,” Panagopoulos added. “It’s not a top priority for voters or an issue about which people naturally know much, so Biden needs to break it down for them in terms that are clear. The bully pulpit is [a] huge advantage for such a task.”

Biden will travel to New York on Wednesday. There, he will visit Valhalla in New York’s Hudson Valley and deliver an address at Westchester Community College about “why Congress must avoid default immediately and without conditions,” according to the White House. Valhalla is represented by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who unseated then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney last year by less than a percentage point. The president won New York’s 17th Congressional District in 2020 by 21 points. Lawler will attend the event.

Biden is “wise” to conduct outreach in swing and light-red districts, Greenberg said, underscoring how “no one ever won reelection by simply tending to the base.” That is particularly applicable as the president averages a net negative 10 approval rating.

“The debt ceiling fight matters in the short term, but the health of the economy is likely to be the more important factor in 2024,” the historian went on. “It’s in Biden’s interest to make sure that we don’t default on our debt — and also to make sure that austerity measures don’t push the country into recession.”

Biden, McCarthy, McConnell, Schumer, and Jeffries have arranged to sit down again on Friday to discuss the debt ceiling, though the speaker told reporters he “didn’t see any new movement” on Tuesday.

“I’ve done everything in my power to make sure [the country] will not default,” McCarthy said. “We have passed a bill to raise the debt limit. Now, I haven’t seen that in the Senate, so I don’t know.”

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“His bill doesn’t have a single Democrat in support, and it gets us nowhere because you have to negotiate to get this done,” Schumer replied. “Take default off the table, and let’s resume negotiations in the appropriations process.”

Biden, who called the conversation “productive,” chastised McCarthy for not pitching a budget and Republicans more broadly for not specifying their spending cuts. Contradicting White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the president admitted he is open, too, to a short-term debt ceiling extension and using the 14th Amendment, though the latter may not be the most appropriate course of action.