McCarthy: Biden Would Rather See a Default Than a Deal

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, before his planned talk with President Joe Biden Sunday morning about the debt ceiling impasse, said in an interview that the potential for a default can only be blamed on spending, but he believes the president "wants a default more than he wants a deal."

"In the last 50 years, we would average about 17% of GDP in revenue," the California Republican told Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo. "Right now we're almost at 20%. only two times in American modern history have we ever got here, 1944 and 2000, so we have more money coming into the coffers than at any time in history."

But the real challenge is the nation's spending, which was at an average for the past 50 years of about 21% of the nation's GDP," said McCarthy.

"In FY-22, after the Democrats have taken over, we're roughly over 24% of GDP, so it's a sheer spending problem," said McCarthy. "We have never offered something different than we talked about the entire time. The pivot has really been after Bernie Sanders had his press conference. The president pivoted back. He actually proposed spending billions more next year than we spent this year."

Biden's budget, "proposes spending more money than we spent at the height of the pandemic," McCarthy added. "We just can't afford to keep borrowing from China, be more dependent, and create more inflation. I do not think it's extreme that we say we should spend less than we spent this year."

The Republican plan raises the debt ceiling while cutting costs by pulling back unspent COVID funds and enacting work requirements for social programs, said McCarthy, noting that Biden voted for the work requirement plan while he was in the Senate years ago.

"The president wants to borrow more money from China to pay people to stay home, and we're talking about cutting the red tape so we could create projects," he added.

Meanwhile, McCarthy said Biden "ignored" him for 97 days, only choosing to act on the spending negotiations after the House Republicans passed their bill.

"The president has really shifted right after the more progressive, socialist wing of the party stood up and said they want to spend more money," said McCarthy. "It seems as though he wants a default more than he wants a deal. That's not where I'm at."

Meanwhile, McCarthy said that at one point he felt that there could be a compromise reached, but said he feels that Biden "fought to change places" even though he has been overseas at the G-7 summit in Japan.

"I don't understand that," said McCarthy. "For 97 days he ignored me. We were in a good place, he goes overseas and now he wants to change the debate? That's not healthy. We still have to pass it before the House and the Senate and we only have 11 days to go."

But Biden's path, with calls for increased spending, will raise the national debt to "a place that we can't afford," he said.

"Right now it's going to be that 17 cents on every dollar we bring in goes to interest," said McCarthy. "We will pay more money in interest in the next 10 years than we've paid in the last 83 years. Now what's happening is every single American that has a new baby, that baby gets charged $94,000 coming into this world. I think's wrong."

In other issues, McCarthy spoke with FBI Director Christopher Wray to discuss the subpoena from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., concerning a document that Comer says shows evidence of illegal activity involving Biden.

"I want to be very clear with the FBI director that Congress has a right and we have the jurisdiction to oversee the FBI," said McCarthy. "I explained to the director that we will do everything in our power and we have the jurisdiction over the FBI, that we have the right to see this document. I believe after this call we will get this document."