'Give me a g-----n break': House Dem fumes on MSNBC over GOP demands on debt ceiling
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts told Republicans on Friday to give him a 'g-----n break' as the debt ceiling fight continues to drag out in Congress.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., took aim at Republicans on Friday as President Biden and the House continue to battle over the debt ceiling.
"Give me a g-----n break," McGovern said Friday on MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell's show. The congressman was targeting House Republicans who are arguing for lower spending as the national debt approaches $32 trillion.
"I cannot quite understand what they are thinking when they believe it is appropriate to try to balance the budget on the backs of those people, the vulnerable in our country, but we can’t touch tax cuts for billionaires, we can’t touch military spending," McGovern added.
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts took aim at Republicans on Friday as President Biden and the House continues to battle over the debt ceiling. (MSNBC / Screenshot)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called on Democrats to accept his Limit, Save, Grow Act in the Senate to avoid default. There is roughly one week left until the U.S. government is expected to run out of cash to pay its current obligations.
McGovern argued that the Pentagon budget shouldn’t be "somehow sacrosanct" or "off limits" in debt reduction negotiations, especially when "60 Minutes" recently revealed that the agency has been chronically overcharged on defense items.
"Last week on ‘60 Minutes,’ they had a former high-level Pentagon official say that the cost overruns are astounding. He talked about the Pentagon paying $10,000 for a $300 oil switch," the congressman said.
MOST DEMOCRATS SUPPORT DEFICIT REDUCTION AS PART OF DEBT CEILING FIGHT: POLL
President Biden has told the Republicans that the White House is still "dug in" on raising taxes and increasing spending, according to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"You mean to tell me you can’t find one penny of savings in the Pentagon budget, that that is somehow sacrosanct, off limits? We can’t look there? But instead we have to look at programs that help poor people?" McGovern asked.
"I mean, you know, I think it tells you all you need to know about who is running the House of Representatives right now," he said.
A source familiar with the ongoing talks between the White House and lawmakers from Capitol Hill told Fox News Digital the two sides had "not agreed" on any of the top line items or a one- or two-year extension of the debt limit.
While Democrats have insisted on raising the debt limit without preconditions, Republicans are lining up behind the House-passed Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would increase the federal borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion while also reducing spending by roughly $150 billion from this year to the next.
McGovern is one of many Democratic members of the House who have criticized the GOP over the debt limit talks. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York also slammed Republicans, claiming that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would result in "chaos."
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Fox News' Brandon Gillespie and Elizabeth Elkind have contributed to this report.