President Biden met with Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders on raising the debt limit. Biden appeared to give remarks and take a few questions following the meeting. It looked and sounded surreal. The White House has posted a transcript of Biden’s remarks here.
If you didn’t stick around for the questions-and-answers you might have missed this highlight:
I — we cut the deficit by $160 billion — billion — B-I-L-O-I-O-N — dollars on the Medicare deal. We cut the deficit by raising the tax on people making — 55 corporations that made $40 billion to 15 percent. And the list goes on. So —
Your next stop, The Twilight Zone!
One reporter strayed off-topic in the last question Biden took. The reporter asked about the situation along the area that used to be our southern border. The reporter wondered whether “the United States is ready for the surge of people that’s going to come across the border starting later this week [with the expiration of Title 42.]” The implied premise was that we have been ready for the 6,000,000-plus that have “come across the border” since Biden was inaugurated, but it wasn’t a bad question.
Biden responded:
I spent close to an hour with — with the Mexican President today. We’re doing all we can. The answer is: It remains to be seen.
We’ve gotten overwhelming cooperation from Mexico. We also are in the process of setting up resi- — offices in Colombia and other places where you could — where someone seeking asylum can go first.
So — but it remains to be seen. It’s going to be chaotic for a while. And, as an example, as I raised in the meeting — when they said, “Well, we’re going to cut, and no spending more money.” So what the hell happens? If you cut — you’re going to cut people at the border? You’re going to cut agents at the border? We n- — we need more at the border, not less at the border.
So the answer is “no.” Republicans seem to be at fault. “It’s going to be chaotic for a while” — everything has been copacetic so far.
How do you solve a problem like Joe Biden? That’s the question.
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