with the handle @cspanwj. speaker mccarthy spoke moments before the president did at a union training center in maryland. here is the speaker on the spending cuts he wants to see. [video clip] >> i'm proud to announce we are introducing the limit stay grow act of 2023 varied this responsible legislation will be led by our budget chairman jodi ernst. it would responsibly raise the debt limit into next year and provide more than four point $5 trillion in savings to the american taxpayer. now here is how we do it? first we limit government spending. our plan would return discretionary spending to pre-inflationary. fiscal year 2022 levels. and then limit the growth of

spending to 1% per year. these are the same levels we had just four months ago. i did not hear a single democrat complain about that level of spending. the spending limits are not your county and, of they are responsible. federal spending exploded in the past two years and democrats controlled all and that does not include the trillions of covid era spending. but limited government spending will reduce inflation and restore fiscal discipline in washington. if washington wants to spend more and will have to come together, find savings elsewhere just like every single household in america. host: the speaker yesterday on the floor. over in maryland president biden traveled to a union training

center and here's what he had to say about the speakers plan. [video clip] pres. biden: republican congers been threating to default on the national debt. that took 230 years to accumulate overall. unless we do what they say. they say they're going to default unless i agree to all of these notions they have. default. we would be worse than totally responsible. it would mean cuts in social security, medicare, higher interest rates things are credit cards, car loans very working class, middle-class, seniors would pay the price. the entire economy would be at the risk. america has never defaulted on our debt. the last of administration alone increased the national debt by 40% in four years yet every single year they passed the debt limit. every single year. in a speech to wall street the speaker failed to guarantee you

would be the first speaker not to default on the debt. if he fails the american people will be devastated, not just 10 or 20 years from now but today. the speaker likes to quote his hero ronald reagan who i knew when i was a senator. he didn't quote everything reagan said. he said debt ceiling threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on social security, benefits in the united states. especial responsibility to meet this obligation. he goes on to say it means we have a well-earned reputation of reliability and credibility which set us apart from the rest of the world. that's what ronald reagan said. donald trump seeking to increase the debt limit while he's doing what he's doing. he said i can't imagine anybody ever even thinking about using the debt ceiling as a

negotiating wedge. i guess he did not know the new republicans he bread. america is not a deadbeat nation. we meet our obligations and i made it clear to the speaker about how we should proceed. no one should do anything to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states. instead of making threats of default if i don't go along with what i will -- what they want which would be catastrophic for the country. take default off the table. let's have a real serious detailed conversation about how to grow the economy, lower costs and reduce the deficit. host: president biden yesterday responding to the republican proposal to make spending cuts calling them wacko notions. here's where republicans would like to see in any sort of debt raising deal. raise the debt ceiling into 2024

by 1.5 trillion or whichever one comes first. reduce spending through the fiscal year 2022 ash to the fiscal 2022 levels. that could amount in 132 billion dollars in spending cuts. and limit future spending growth to 1% annually. it would recover $90.5 billion in unspent covid-19 funds. work requirements for federal aid recipients occluding raising the limit for work requirements from 49 to 55 and clawback irs funds for the new 80,000 agents, a block student debt cancellation and perform energy committing and revoke clean energy tax credits. that the legislation the house recently passed. mike in ohio. let's go to you. and independent, what do you think? should cuts be part of the negotiations? caller: of course. come on. we the people have been in

trouble for a long time and they are expecting us to cut back. we have inflation running out of control. let me tell you how we can take care of this problem. we cut that building right behind you 10% across-the-board. we've got agencies that are doing two to three things at different agencies. things are out of control. our industrial complex that keeps wanting more and more money, they give us a price on a certain item and the next thing you know it's over cost run and we are just shoveling money. immigration. close the border. close the border. we are spending hundreds of millions on immigration. close the border. host: mike said spending cuts should be included in ending proposal to raise the debt

ceiling. joe in georgia, a republican. what do you think? caller: love your network. we've got a cut spending. it must be cut. we are having big things happening. this saturday, the georgia gang every sunday. he's good to be talking. host: let's stick to the topic. sharon in maryland, a democratic caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was thinking this spending cuts we already have inflation that so high for the american people and its things are just not right right now. it is out of whack. you know these republicans, they are just in chaos. there can bring this country down. it's not right what they are doing to the american people. i know they spending a lot of money but i don't want to see our country default it on our

debt. it's can have an effect on everyone. and what about the lower-class or middle-class people but are not making that much money. i just don't understand this country how it's working. one thing i know, i have to pray and my prayer is the only thing that keeps me afloat. i thank god for that. host: saying no to spending cuts. she does not want to see the possibility of a financial crisis if we fault on our obligations. the speaker says he will bring this bill to the floor next weekend according to recording -- reporting he feels confident he has the votes, all republicans -- the republicans he needs to pass this legislation. eric in massachusetts, independent. caller: good morning.

i do believe spending cuts have been long overdue. we are way over budget obviously . i am a government employee myself, i work in the department of defense. i went to -- went through what they call the sequester. they had no problem cutting my pay literally right off the knees by 20%. it wasn't a long time, but they cut it right off. and no one really had an issue with it. if we cut welfare for instance 1/10 of 1%, the democrats would've been out of their minds. they would have been apoplectic about cutting that small amount. but they cut me off 20% for that small timeframe luckily. however, i will also say this. we are dumping millions of

people into our country and i guess that we need labor force to come in and do certain jobs but i don't feel these people are all gainfully employed. i do feel it's going to be a drain on our system and that has to be addressed somehow. host: john in new york, republican. what do you say on this debate? caller: i would say yes. the problem is spending cuts are always a matter of political necessity, but also practical applications.

geldman sachs just did an analysis and they said the savings from ending the green giveaways are as much as $1.

trillion. we would prohibit president biden's student loan giveaway for the wealthy that would protect the 87% of adults without student loans for paying the loans of the 13% who do. host: the speaker yesterday giving more details about republican's push for including spending cuts in any, any proposal to raise the nation's debt limit. you heard him give some numbers there. here's "the washington times" reporting. they said the bill cuts federal spending by $130 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, that's 2024, and limits future budget growth to 1%. it limits president biden's student loan forgiveness program and unspent covid relief money. it would repeal major portions of mr. biden's $739 billion climate change law including $70

billion in i.r.s. funding and more than $369 billion in green energy tax credit. let's hear from president biden. as we said these two key players in these negotiations were giving dueling speeches yesterday, one right after the other. here's president biden talking about the proposed spending cuts and saying these are critical programs that americans rely on. >> do you think he told the billion dollar companies to stop stashing profits in tax havens off the coast and shipping jobs overseas? i didn't hear any of that. did you? instead he proposed a huge tax to imports and very important programs. millions of hardworking middle class americans count on. all the while, officials are separately pushing for more tax giveaways and overwhelming

benefits to the biggest corporations and wealthiest americans. this time the same-old trickle down in tresessed up maga clothing is worse than ever. the plan has details. the plan is straight with the american people. mccarthy comes along and delivers a speech without a plan. in some sense it's simple. for example, he talked about limiting spending. all for that, man. let's limit spending. lk what he didn't say. he didn't tell you how much he wants to cut. the house republican proposal would cut critical programs, so-called discretionary spend big 22%. that would mean cutting the number of people who administer social security and medicare, meaning longer wait times. higher costs for child care. seg cant hi higher preschool, college. higher costs for housing, especially for older americans, people with disability, families with children. veterans.

30 million fewer veteran outpatient visitings, lieferg brave warriors to get checkups and mental health treatments. tens of thousands of people suffering from opioid epidemic would be denied treatment they need for recovery. the maga22% -- maga 22% cut undermines border safety, clean air, clean water. it's not hyperbole. maga republican congress wants to defund the f.b.i. and the police. talk about the de-funding. they don't like the f.b.i. maybe arrested some of them. it's outrageous. i mean think about it. defund the f.b.i.? maga republicans in congress have introduced a bill that could cake food assistance away from as many as 10 million kids, people, four million children. and put them at risk of going

hungry. wealthiest country in the world. maga republicans in congress support cuts in medicaid that could lead to millions losing their health care including the working poor and people with disabilities. and here's the thing that does the painful -- do these painful cuts actually help the deficits? do they reduce costs? the answer is, the honest answer is, no. host: back to your calls. john, maryland, democratic caller. are you for including spending cuts or no? caller: i was listening to the president, everything he said right there, this might be the richest country in the world but we are about some of the most ignorant political and economic people i've ever seen or heard. if people would stop listening to fox news and pay attention to something else there's a possibility they might be educated. when he said the magic thing, that trickle down theory from ronald reagan been robbing the

people at the bottom and those tax cuts that trump gave last -- the four year he was in there the military spending that's being done, the tax havens that are there. i mean, it's amazing how the american people just don't listen, they just listen to one person, one entity but don't go searching for the truth in other arias. host: it sounds like from what you just said you'd be willing to see some spending cuts for the pentagon's budget. caller: when you take a look at, ma'am, we are still paying for the vietnam war. we're still paying for that, for the iraqi war. we're still paying for the invasion of afghanistan. we american people, all that stuff going to ukraine. that's our tax dollars. host: as a democrat though you're sounding like a republican on the ukraine spending. caller: no, what i'm telling the

american people, whose money is paying for that, so they'll know why the money is -- why everything so high. plus do republicans allow it in the congress, the businesses that gouged the american people. what's happening with the economy that happened under buyen, this thing started three, four, five, six, seven, eight years ago. gownling the american people. host: all right i asked those quoafs john wondering if there's some middle ground there. the problem solvers caucus have come up with a plan. earlier wednesday the bipartisan house problem solvers caucus released its own debt limit fraywork and they says this -- framework and they say this is a backup, only a backup if speaker mccarthy and president biden can't come together and reach a deal. the proposal, endorsed by a supermajority of the group's 64 members calls for suspending the debt limit nucially through the end of this year to allow lawmaker triems to complete the fiscal 2024 budget and appropriations process. in the interim, the proposal calls for creating an external

fiscal commission modeled after the base alignment and closure or brac commission. the fiscal commission would be charged with recommending measures to stabilize long-term deficits and debt by the end of 2024. congress provided it with expedited authority to act on the recommendations by february 28, 2025. the problem solvers did not specify what controls they are seek bug said the am should be enough to increase the debt limit through february, 2025, to align with implementation of the fiscal commission recommendation. so there is a backup plan. wondering your thoughts on that this morning as well. alex in mount airy, maryland, independent. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i guess there's a couple of things that some of your other callers brought up that

are really great too. i would say that i've only been really paying attention to stuff since the latterred on they have bush era but it seems like this discussion continues to happen over and over and over. we have to do something about spending. we have to cut somewhere. we just don't -- you played a clip a little bitago about president biden talking about how we've been growing the deficit for 200 years whatever. right or wrong, that should stagger everybody. if we cannot get ourselves under control to where we've been building debt for centuries, that shouldn't indicative of a problem, to say the least. i would also suggest that in addition to spending limits or cuts from budget proposals, the man for the which the government spends money, there's an issue. i'm sure you're very aware of this. but the elements of the

government are incentivized to spend all the money they get. because they'll get their budgets cut the following year if they don't. the government will rightly assume, you didn't need the money, we can spend it somewhere else. as a common practice, throughout the government, particularly i would say in the department of defense, that's been my experience anyway, that's something we do all the time. so folks that are saying we need to cut the d.o.d., that's a possibility. if we're honest with ourselves, this requires people that are dealing with our money in the department of defense be good stewards of taxpayer money, if you don't need it, then you need to be willing to give it up. there's -- i guess what i'm trying to say is there's a lot of different ways that this can be done to impact the deficit and impact the amount of money the government spends and not just negotiations, it's been the way we practice our fiscal

responsibility with taxpayer money. host: you mentioned the history of this debt ceiling fight. allen blinder writes today in the "wall street journal," he's a former federal reserve member, served from 1996 to 19 -- from 1994 to 1996 as vice chair. said biden doesn't need congress to avoid a debt ceiling crisis. this is what he writes today. the national debt ceiling is a numerical limit set by law on total u.s. government borrowing. prior to the 1917 act of congress the treasury needed congressional approval for every issue of debt. world war i made that cumbersome so congress switched to an overall limit on total borrowing which has been raised numerous times since then. if the budget enacted yeech ear -- each year applies more borrowing than the limit allow, congress tiply raises it without much fuss. it's routine because the federal budget is usually in deficit,

requiring the treasury to borrow more each year. so why should we have a debt ceiling at all? the seemingly obvious answer, to create fiscal discipline, must be wrong because only one other advanced nation, denmark, has such a law. other countries don't because it's a wacky idea, he writes. hasn't the u.s. government already breached the ceiling? technically but not legally. treasury secretary janet yellen postponed the day of reckoning by employing accounting gimmicks called extraordinary measures. the biggest of these is having the treasury borrow from the retirement accounts of federal workers. don't trust that if you're running a company but it's legal for the federal government. more to the point however, ms. yellen has warned that such legal gimmicks may not last past june. we need a longer-lasting fix. allen blinder goes on in the "wall street journal" piece this morning writing this. the best solutions to averting what could be a major financial

and economic calamity are legislative which is the current hyperpartisan environment probably makes them out of the question -- with the current hyperpartisan environment probably makes them out of the question. w.e.c. join all other nations but denmark by abolishing the debt ceil, thereby ending the problem forever. or congress could recognize the laws of arithmetic by making a higher debt ceiling accompany any legislative budget deficit automatically. or it could do what it normally does and raise the debt ceiling again. such solutions would be slimple if there was even a whiff of bipartisan good will in congress but since there isn't, the country may need a nonlegislative solution. mr. biden may soon face two conflicting flaw, the budget and the debt ceil, the former will direct him to pay all the bills in full and on time the latter will say you can't. allen blinder says, though, the

president could seek a nonlegislative solution. it is the 14th amendment, he writes. it states the validity of the public debt of the united states shall not be questioned. if renecking on the public debt sun constitutional, does that mean other legitimate claimants such as federal contractors social security recipients must be stiffed? you can read more in the "wall street journal" this morning by allen blinder. alex, excuse me, tim, in michigan, republican. good morning to you, tim. you are next. what do you say? spending cuts as part of this or just a clean debt ceiling limit, raising it in a clean way? caller: i think to be honest with you, the american people are so bombarded with all this information about how many

trillions and how many billions and how many thousands of dollars that are going out the window and the debt ceiling, like you just read a whole thing about it. we have debts out here. if our debts don't get paid, we get our stuff taken away from us. so basically the american people are realizing this and they are actually affecting the way the economy is working right now. we're seeing all the stuff our government is doing, i believe. we want it to stop. in order for us to -- we want some of our freedoms back. so that's what is causing all this conflict, i believe. and the democrats say one thing. the republicans say the other. we're all in this together. all this stuff. but really we're not. because we're all separate. we all have to take care of our

families. we can't worry about how many trillions of dollars are going out. we don't even see that money. we don't see it. we don't care about it. we just have to take care of ourselves. host: let me ask you this. in these spending cuts that republicans want to see, do you think that impacts -- the average american? or who do you think it impacts if you see, if there are spending cuts? caller: the spending cuts don't really impact any of us. we have to go to work to make a living. if you don't go to work or if you are on retirement or if you're this and that, the social security deal is a farce. they have to pay us that. otherwise we'd have an uprising in this country. and it's about coming to that because of all the rhetoric that's being thrown around about

oh, they want to cut, they don't want to cut. do wan to cut. not going to cut this. we're going to spend more money on violence. host: understood. perry in fort lauderdale, florida. democrat caller. what do you say? what do you think the president should do? caller: you've got one of the smartest tv stations in america for politics but you get the dumbest callers. you don't have any kind of -- you don't play around with the debt ceiling. let's remember something. the two times republicans were in charge in the last 20 years, they gave away double digit trillions in tax cuts, predominantly to the richest americans. that's why you have the debt that you have. president obama, even during the eight years he was president, the only reason his numbers weren't high we are the debt was because he put the bush tax cuts

and put them on the books. that's where your debt. is they don't want to take a cent away from the richest people. no. they just want to take from the poor people. unbelievable. i guess they can't get rid of black history month, they just want to get rid of black history. thank you. host: chance in minnesota, independent. what's the name of the town gun? caller: laverne. host: i'm from there, i should know that. caller: you're from there? host: not from there, but from minnesota. clip got you. -- . caller: gotcha. with the debt ceiling it's like giving an allowance to a kid. if they don't do their job, they don't get and allowance. if i don't go to work and do my job i don't get paid. these guys keep spending money over and over again on both sides, left and right. and it's like when do we, you

know, say enough is enough? i used to be a republican and now it's like, you know, i see down the middle. if you're not for the constitution, or the declaration of independence, then you have no business in the government. it's ridiculous. john adams and george washington both despised parties and the whole push left to right divides the country even more. when it comes to the debt ceiling, you know, stop paying. they're wasting money left and right on both sides. host: part of the speaker's proposal yesterday was requiring work -- new work requirements for those who receive snap benefits and other federal programs that proposal comes from dusty johnson, a republican who writes that he is behind what the speaker put forward on the house floor in a statement saying that he was especially

grateful the speaker includes so many republican mainstream caucus priorities in his plan. listen to the speaker on the floor wednesday on the g.o.p. plan to tighten work requirements forked aprograms. [video clip] the biden administration has weakened some of the very work requirements that then-senator joe biden previously supported. our plan ensures adults without dependents earn a paycheck and learn new skills. by restoring these commonsense measures, we can help more americans earn a paycheck. learn new skills. reduce childhood poverty. and rebuild the work force. it will also protect and preserve medicare and social

security. because more people will be paying into it. host: speaker mccarthy on the floor yesterday. he said the bill will come to the floor next week. "roll call" is reporting he's confident it will pass. in those remarks, he called on the president to negotiate over the debt ceiling saying the republicans want to see some spending cuts. you heard president biden yesterday saying that he calls them backo notions. here's a -- calls them wacko notions. here's a little more from the president warning that this would only hurt america's working class. brooct video clip] pres. biden: massive benefits for those at the top. a lot of -- all the tax cuts go to the top, none to the bottom. the threat of defaulting on america's debt for the first time in 230 years. we've never, ever defaulted on a debt.

it would destroy this economy. and who do you think will hurt the most? you. hardworking people. the middle class. the neighbors i got raised in. not the super wealthy or the powerful but working folks. host: your turn to tell us where you are on this debate do. you agree with republicans that there needs to be spending cuts or with the white house that they should not play around with the nation's economy and just have a clean debt ceiling raised. ronald in troy, north carolina. republican. caller: good morning. host: hi, ronald. caller: hey. i was calling in just sitting, watching the news, what the president is doing to our country. it's never going to be the same if they don't get him out of there. he needs to be at peace. ever since i've seen the news show, with chuck schumer on it talking in the house, he spreads

that they're a god in the house. host: what about the debt limit, ronald. caller: that's what's wrong with the country. they've ruined our country with all the spending. yeah. host: from montana, democrat caller. caller: hello, good morning, everybody. happy 4/20 to those who celebrate. about the debt ceil, i think we need to, you know, basically tax people more. and stop going to war. we spend too much on wars. we means test all our social programs. we spend more money on social programs by means testing people rather than just let people get in the programs in the first place. and you know, if the workers realize they can own the means of production and, you know, start their own business and take control of this country again like they did back in the 19 10's,