Rep. Nancy Mace on Sunday said that she supports House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's plan to refuse to lift the nation's debt limit unless the White House and Democrats agree to cuts in spending, and will back the vote if the GOP wins the House majority in November's elections.
"Look at the end of the day, when COVID happened, you had the federal government and state governments shut companies down," the South Carolina Republican, who is seeking reelection, told CNN's "State of the Union." "Businesses had to make tough decisions about how they were going to keep their doors open. The federal government just kept getting record revenue year over year and hasn’t had to make those tough decisions.”
Friday, President Joe Biden vowed that he won't allow Republicans, if they win the majority, to cut social programs such as Medicare or Social Security.
Last week, McCarthy, R-Calif., said that if his party wins control of the House, they will use raising the debt limit as leverage to force spending cuts, which could include slashing funds for Medicare and Social Security, while limiting additional funding for Ukraine's fight against Russia, reports The Washington Post.
Show host Jake Tapper asked Mace about the impact the stance could have on the national economy, and she pointed out that Republicans have been "calling for more responsible spending, looking at the deficit spending in these bills that have been passed, talking about how we can move this country forward, and we’ve been shut out."
"When we did the infrastructure bill on the House side last year, every Republican was shut out of being part of that discussion," Mace added. "Republicans have tried to work with, reach across the aisle, and have been shut out of many of those conversations, so I think that is a way to negotiate moving forward."
But while Mace supports McCarthy's call on the debt limit, she said she's not automatically in favor of some fellow Republicans' calls to impeach Biden if their party wins the House majority, but she's not dismissing the demands, as any high crimes and misdemeanors "would have to be investigated."
"I am not interested in playing tit-for-tat," she said. "I am not interested in retaliation. Impeachment has been weaponized over the years, and we’ve seen that. I want us to be focused on the economy, on tackling inflation with responsible policy."
She also said Sunday she agrees that Ukraine is important to American interests but she does not believe the United States should continue writing "blank checks" to foreign nations.
"It is something that we’re going to have to find balance on next year," she said.