Alex Acosta to Newsmax: McCarthy Seeks Debt-Ceiling Compromise

Former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta told Newsmax on Monday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is trying to "get Wall Street on board for really a compromise on this debt ceiling debate" during his visit this week.

McCarthy addressed the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

"The speaker … said, 'We'll take a vote on the debt ceiling, but in return for that we want a commitment … to limit spending, to really work on reducing this deficit,'" Acosta said on "National Report."

"Right now, the debt ceiling's around $31.4 [or] $31.5 trillion … to put that in practical terms, that's $94,000 per American, $94,000 per man, per woman, per child, per retiree, of debt that we have, and they want to increase that even more."

Acosta added: "The quick fix is to say, Yeah, we have to pay our bills, let's increase that, but you can't keep increasing the amount of debt per person in the United States. You really need to tackle the underlying problem, which is the deficit spending in the first six months of this year … our deficit was already $1 trillion, just in the first six months of this fiscal year."

Acosta also commented on recently released inflation figures, saying, "What's clear is inflation is not coming down nearly as quickly as it has to come down."

Acosta added: "There was a very short-lived celebration when the inflation figures came out last week because on the surface inflation was down a little bit. But as soon as you look behind the numbers, the market did not react well and, in fact, interest rates went up because housing was up over 8% year over year, food was up over 8% year over year. 

"The only reason inflation ticked down was [because] gas prices had fallen 18% year over year. But we know every time we go to fill our cars that gas practice prices fluctuate from week to week and month to month, and so the fact that gas prices are down is not a solution to inflation."

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