Prime House Democrat says GOP handed ‘ransom note,’ not a funds, as default looms

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Republicans’ passage of laws to boost the debt ceiling and lower trillions of {dollars} in spending over the following decade was akin to a “ransom note.”

The New York Democrat caught by President Biden’s refusal to barter spending cuts forward of a gathering this week on the White House with high congressional leaders as Washington stares down an early June deadline when the U.S. will default on its debt.

“[House Republicans] didn’t produce a budget. What they did was produce a ransom note,” Mr. Jeffries stated Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Either Republicans want us to accept these dramatic cuts or accept a catastrophic default on our nation’s debt. That is [their] unreasonable position.”

Even with their razor-thin majority, House Republicans final month narrowly handed laws to keep away from default and return spending to 2022 ranges whereas rolling again different federal spending permitted below Mr. Biden.

The transfer put strain on Mr. Biden and Senate Democrats to return to the negotiating desk as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns the U.S. may default as early as June 1.

But the White House and Democrats up to now have refused to budge, arguing that spending cuts ought to as an alternative be debated as a part of the annual funds course of.