President Biden on Monday bashed House Republicans for heading towards a government shutdown, saying that they shouldn’t be elected if they can’t do their job to fund the government.
“Funding the government is one of the most basic, fundamental responsibilities of the Congress and if Republicans in the House don’t start doing their job, we should stop electing them,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.
Biden noted that he made a deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in May that led to an increase in the debt ceiling. Under that deal, lawmakers voted for legislation that set ceilings on spending for the next year. Now conservatives in the House are seeking to make deeper cuts than that deal.
Biden accused the GOP of not abiding by the debt-ceiling agreement.
“Now, a small group of extreme House Republicans, they don’t want to live up to that deal and everyone in America could be faced with paying a price for that,” he said. “We made a deal. We shook hands. We said this is what we’re going to do and now they’re reneging on the deal, which is not much of a surprise these days.”
When asked if he has spoken to McCarthy, Biden shook his head.
“I haven’t,” he said. He shook his head again when asked if he will speak to to the Speaker.
Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to pass legislation to fund the government and prevent a shutdown.
So far, House Republicans have not agreed to a deal amongst themselves, let along with the Senate and White House.
The president’s comments came during a meeting with his board of advisers on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He outlined what a government shutdown would mean for the Black community.
“The Black community in particular is going to suffer if that occurs,” he said of a shutdown.
He said that under a shutdown, which put would non-essential government workers on furlough, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would stop all of its enforcement work fighting housing discrimination, and that the Environmental Protection Agenda would have to stop environmental justice work because inspections would come to a halt. He also said funding for small businesses would be impacted.
Biden’s reelection campaign earlier on Monday hit House Republicans for heeding former President Trump’s calls to dig in on a shutdown. Last week, the Biden campaign called out Trump for rooting for a shutdown, saying that the former president doesn’t care about the ramifications it would have for Americans families.