'Gut punch to the middle class': Biden slams House Freedom Caucus over debt ceiling demands

The far-right House Freedom Caucus on Friday released a list of spending demands that would effectively curtail President Joe Biden’s economic agenda — prompting a fiery response from the president.

The list of demands comes as House Republicans and the White House square off over raising the debt ceiling. According to the Washington Post, “Congress must raise or suspend the current $31 trillion cap as soon as this summer or risk a default.”

The Post reports:

The ultimatum from the House Freedom Caucus — led by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — threatened to deal a massive blow to government health care, education, science and labor programs.

Punchbowl News reporter Mica Soellner posted a tweet containing a handout from the House Freedom Caucus, which demanded “the enactment of legislation to” curtail Biden’s student loan bailout, IRS expansion and climate change spending, among other White House priorities. House Republicans claimed their demands would “save roughly $3 trillion over the long term by cutting the wasteful, woke and weaponized federal bureaucracy.”

The demands, according to the handout, must be met in order for members to “consider voting to raise the debt ceiling.”

As the Post notes, the debt ceiling is "the legal limit on how much the U.S. government can borrow to pay for spending that lawmakers and presidents in both parties have already approved.”

Quoting Soellner’s tweet, President Biden argued, “Extreme MAGA House Republicans are showing us what they value: tax breaks for the rich.”

“They demand the biggest Medicare benefits cut in decades, ship jobs overseas, defund law enforcement, devastate our national and border security,” Biden wrote.

“It’s a gut punch to the middle class,” the President added.

Read the full report at the Washington Post and see the tweet below or at this link.