US President Joe Biden says he will refuse to cut any federal debt-ceiling deal with Republicans that shields tax cheats and crypto traders.
During a news conference in Japan, Biden says that Republicans need to move away from their “extreme positions” in order to reach an agreement to avoid a debt default.
“I’m not going to agree to a deal that protects wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders while putting food assistance at risk for nearly one million Americans. It’s time for Republicans to accept that there is no bipartisan deal to be made solely, solely on their partisan terms.”
In his mention of crypto traders, Biden seemingly refers to a proposal to disallow crypto traders from claiming a loss on assets if they sell them and then turn around and quickly buy them again, which Republicans are opposing, according to the Washington Post. The rule already exists for stocks and other assets, according to the report.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously mentioned that the government will run out of cash sometime in early June if the debt ceiling isn’t raised beforehand.
Biden also mentions what he accomplished in his budget proposal and other trade-offs that he is unwilling to make.
“I’ve done my part.
We put forward a proposal to cut spending by more than a $1 trillion on top of the nearly $3 trillion in deficit reduction that I previously proposed through the combination of spending cuts and new revenues. Now it’s time for the other side to move from their extreme positions because much of what they’ve already proposed is simply, quite frankly, unacceptable.
And so let me be clear, I’m not going to agree to a deal that protects, for example, a $30 billion tax break for the oil industry, which made $200 billion last year – they don’t need an incentive of another $30 billion – while putting healthcare of 21 million Americans at risk by going after Medicaid. I’m not going to agree to a deal that protects $200 billion in excess payments for pharmaceutical industries and refusing to count that while cutting over 100,000 school teachers and assistants’ jobs, 30,000 law enforcement officers’ jobs cut across the entire United States of America.”
Biden was in Japan for the Group of Seven (G7) summit.
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