White House Says GOP Budget Cuts Job Training Services, Endangers Workers

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks during a news conference after a budget briefing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 8, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The White House has strongly condemned the “extreme MAGA” Republican House Freedom Caucus budget proposal, calling it a disaster for American families.

The White House asserted in a March 23 statement that the Republicans’ proposal would impose devastating cuts that would increase costs for working- and middle-class families while protecting and extending tax breaks skewed to wealthy corporations.

The White House argues that the proposed tax cuts would be so “expensive, deep, and harmful” that they would not reduce the deficit.

“The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal will be a five-alarm fire for families—including by shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and undermining workers,” the White House said.

“Not only would their extreme proposal cost manufacturing jobs in communities across the country, but it would hurt workers by making deep cuts to job training services and preventing workers from recouping back pay that they are owed.”

The Republicans’ budget plan was outlined in a March 10 letter from the House Freedom Caucus. The group said they would “consider voting to raise the debt ceiling” if certain contingencies were enacted through legislation.

HFC proposed policies that would limit future spending and reduce current spending. Additionally, it would recoup cash from COVID-19 funding that was not used, recoup the IRS growth fund, and several other cuts.

According to the White House, the President’s budget, by contrast, invests in America, lowers costs for families, protects and strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and reduces the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years, ensuring that no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in new taxes.

HFC Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) vehemently disagreed with the White House’s characterization of the Republicans’ budget: “Another day, another breathtaking lie from President Biden, who’s spending more time bolstering his credentials as Divider-in-Chief than assembling a coherent rebuttal to the fact that his out-of-control policies are oblivious to the devastating economic realities he’s inflicted upon American families and job creators.”

The Biden administration cited a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report (pdf) in their push back against the Republican budget plan.

The White House claimed that “in order to meet Congressional Republicans’ stated commitment to balancing the budget in 10 years without raising taxes on the wealthy or corporations, and without cutting Social Security, Medicare, defense, and some veterans’ benefits —Congressional Republicans would need to eliminate everything in the rest of the Federal budget.”

HFC member Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) responded to the White House’s assertion in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, saying, “If President Biden wants to know who is crushing manufacturing jobs, he should take a look in the mirror. Biden’s radical policies to spend more, regulate more, and tax more are driving business out of America and exacerbating this out-of-control inflation. It’s time to put Americans first and restore economic prosperity in our country.”

The White House previously responded to the stipulations on March 20, saying the proposal “will make our border less secure” and eliminate funding for thousands of CBP employees.

Perry called the White House’s reply to their plan “Just more pearl-clutching from a president whose statements drift daily toward 1984 instead of credible policy in 2023.”