Stay updated with breaking news from Spending issue. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. >> martha: so mike johnson, very busy man today. one of the things he's been working on is calling on president biden to take action at the southern border. the speaker spoke with president biden by phone today. also sent him a detailed letter urging him to use the power that he has as president to stop the record-breaking surge of migrants crossing our border. speaker mike johnson joins us now live from capitol hill. mr. speaker, thanks very much. great to have you with us today. >> hi, martha. great to be with you. >> martha: so tell me -- i want to start with the spending issue that you're dealing with. i know you have a lot of very agitated members on the right-hand side of your party.
of older workers, the president pushed hard for expanding that snap program, food benefit program so that people who are homeless or who are veterans actually have fewer restrictions on their ability to claim those benefits. on net, those two changes actually mean that more people will get access to those benefits. yes this is a compromise. it has elements that we wouldn't put in there. the president pushed hard to have tax increases included on this. we don't think it's just a spending issue we have. republicans rejected those. at the same time we were able to protect key priorities of the democratic party. >> on a very, very busy day, i really appreciate you coming over to take some time to talk to us. thank you. >> thank you. and coming off two days of barn storming through iowa, ron desantis today is in new hampshire, and he got a little testy. the florida governor snapped this morning when a reporter questioned his willingness to field voters' questions. >> governor, how come you're not
we begin tonight with breaking news straight from capitol hill. we are getting word that the white house and house republicans are getting closer to a deal to raise the debt ceiling. one week before the u.s. runs out of money. what do we know right now about where the deal stands between kevin mccarthy, house republicans and the white house? >> i think we should caveat by saying nothing has been agreed upon yet. nothing has been finalized. they are moving closer to a deal. we have seen progress over the last 12 hours, particularly on the spending issue. that's been something that has been really bedevilling the talks. they started floating the idea of a potential compromise that both sides could try to claim as essentially a win. one of the things they are discussing is raising the debt ceiling for two years, which would be longer than what house republicans had proposed in their debt ceiling plan in the house. then instituting spending caps for two years. caps on federal spending levels.
>> abby, i think we should caveat by saying nothing that we have -- nothing has been finalized. they are moving closer to a deal. we have seen some progress over the last few 12 hours, particularly on the spending issue. that is as something that has been really bedeviling the talks. but they started at least floating the idea of a potential compromise that both sides could try to claim as a win. one of the things they are discussing is raising the debt ceiling for two years, which would be longer than what wrote republicans have been proposing in their debt ceiling plan, and then instituting spending caps for two years. so caps on federal spending levels. they have not agreed on those numbers for the spending caps, but one of the emerging compromises here is the idea that they would spare pentagon funding. so, it would spare specific domestic programs so that democrats can say, we actually didn't cut certain things. other programs would see some cuts, which republicans couldn't claim as a win. so you are starting to see the contours of how a spending
but this is real flash point. there are other issues they've still not resolved the spending issue. they're closing in on it but still tens of billions of dollars apart. very complicated but trying to put some mechanism in to try and cap federal spending the next two years and make sure congress can stick to that agreement because that's what's the problem. congress makes a deal here but then blows it up down the road. so there's still -- there's still a lot of moving parts, but they hope -- they really need to get a deal today if they're going to start voting on this next week in the house and senate. >> sounds like you might be getting updates there with the pinging. so let's talk about the time line. june 1st is the deadline and thursday, a week away. complicated pieces to remain. congress, they're congress, so they're going to make things coughlicate. so you think it has to get done today? and if so what are the chances it does? >> i still think momentum is on
president shepherded. >> todd: kevin mccarthy says the white house is dug in on raising taxes and increasing spending. jonathan turley says using the 14th amendment would be a bandaid to the white house's larger spending issue. >> the question is raising the ceiling on debt is nothing to do with the 14th amendment. congress is honoring debt and willing to raise the ceiling for the debt, the white house has to negotiate the budget, that goes to the very function of the legislative branch and power of the purse. that is what framers gave to congress as critical part of the separation of powers and it is really other worldly to see democratic leaders begging the president to make them constitutional nonentities by
ceiling and says neither republicans nor democrats have put forth a serious solution to address u.s. debt. thanks for being with us. you have dismissed the doomsday scenarios if the u.s. defaults. are you not worried about the impact on the economy? >> first of all, i am not opposed to a debt ceiling bill. i'm opposed to this debt ceiling bill. >> understood. >> we need to do more. we have $58 trillion of debt in ten years. we have $53 trillion under the republican plan. that's unacceptable. i hope we get to a debt ceiling bill that actually deals with the spending issue that we have to deal with. >> there's a bipartisan bill in the house that would block pay for members of congress if the u.s. defaults. that's a drop in the bucket. but it's symbolically important. would you support that? >> yes, i would. >> why not get rid of the trump tax cuts as one step to tackle the deficit as democrats are
public will not tolerate your attacking the trump administration 2017 to 2021 what they will tolerate is saying to donald trump stop being so negative. stop being so cruel and stop attacking other republicans fifth. the average republican voter is pretty old. i like to say the average republican voters deceased. they all have grandkids, and they will change their vote based on what impacts their grandchildren and the number one issue for the grandchildren about the grandchildren is the debt ceiling. really republicans have to get back at accountability and they have to get at the spending issue. this is what matters most to them because this affects you said military salaries, social security checks, hospitals. bondholders and what have you on recession financial crisis that's more important to them. that's more important than than structural issues stop wasteful washington spending character also matters and we have the example of donald trump criticizing barack
in this area, republicans, that there is support for that. some are scratching their head and wondering when did we become anti-democratic in supporting other democratic countries dealing with a country that's invaded them folks are trying to understand that i think the more the leadership can do to help them in understanding that, not only in terms of the narrative, but the spending, showing and articulating where that money is going, i think the harder it becomes for the kevin mccarthys to sort of stay off that stage and not have to address more directly the support we have for ukraine. >> part of the spending issue that comes up is we're spending all that money, billions of dollars in ukraine, and we have so many problems here at home and so many programs we're not funding. couldn't that money be better spent here that's part of the argument. >> it's a little bit of a red
they usually are. the interest payments on that debt are now $400 billion. we have all that spending of trillions of dollars during coed braid the biden presidency spent more billions resulted in the highest inflation anyone has experience in their lifetime. i think the american people are aware now the federal government is spending at in a normal space. as an opportunity for the republicans to make a principled argument about sitting down and negotiating about the spending issue. the democrats of the one sitting there saying no we won't talk about anything, spend forever. >> bill, that is the issue. can the white house hold onto this position of sink we will not negotiate? my reporting suggests it's a pretty hard over on this for they do not want to make the same kind of concessions on spending that barack obama did in 2011 and that debt ceiling fight. they think they can get away with this.