Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) hammered President Joe Biden’s “abdication of leadership” ahead of negotiations with Democrat Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) regarding the debt ceiling.
Britt, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), sent a letter to Biden on Friday that affirmed Senate Republicans’ opposition to raising the debt ceiling without “structural reforms to address current and future fiscal realities, actually enforce the budget and spending rules on the books, and manage out-of-control government policies.”
Speaking with Breitbart News on Tuesday, Britt declared, “it is past time to restore fiscal sanity in our country.”
Britt told Breitbart News:
The American people know that Washington’s out-of-control deficit spending has fueled the inflation that continues to crush families, small businesses, and retirees nationwide. It is past time to restore fiscal sanity in our country. President Biden and Senator Schumer are being reckless by refusing to even discuss a responsible path forward with Speaker McCarthy. This is not leadership – it is an abdication of leadership. Our children and our children’s children deserve better.
Sen.-elect Katie Britt (R-AL) makes her way to a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and incoming Republican Sens.-elect in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The letter, which Republican Policy Committee chair Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) signed, reiterated their commitment to the Senate Republican Conference’s policy that “any increase in the debt ceiling must be accompanied by cuts in federal spending of an equal or greater amount as the debt ceiling increase, or meaningful structural reform in spending, such as the Prevent Government Shutdown Act or the Full Faith and Credit Act.”
The senators wrote:
Our nation’s fiscal policy is a disaster. Our country owes $31 trillion, a level of debt that now well exceeds the size of our economy. Inflation is making life more expensive for American families every single day. Meanwhile, your administration is directing federal agencies to continue to spend billions in taxpayer resources, expanding the size and scope of the IRS to go after families and small businesses, policing the speech of Americans on social media, funding equity programs in the military, and pouring money into programs for a pandemic that your administration has declared over.
In addition to Britt, Ernst, and Lee, Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Braun (R-IN), Ted Budd (R-NC), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jim Risch (R-ID), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Tim Scott (R-SC) signed onto the letter.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.