The debt ceiling
House Republicans are getting “mixed messages” about prospects for a debt ceiling compromise and need to see the outlines of a deal no later than Wednesday to avoid default by June 1, says South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace.
“Some are saying we’re close, some are saying we’re still far away, and that’s a little bit concerning,” Mace told CBS News on “The Takeout” this week.
Mace found fault with President Biden for attending the G7 economic summit in Japan, arguing he should be engaging congressional leadership directly to reach a deal on the debt ceiling.
“If we are that close to default, then the president of the United States should be up here on Capitol Hill, actually be here negotiating on the Hill,” Mace said. “We need a president who’s going to make these decisions and negotiate face to face with Republican and Democrat leaders because guess what? It’s been both parties that got us into this, Republicans and Democrats alike, not one side or the other. And both sides need to sit down and negotiate.”
Mr. Biden assigned Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and top White House aide Steve Ricchetti to lead negotiations with House Republicans and other congressional officials, which Mace called “a great first start.”
“But since we’re so close to the June 1 deadline, we need a president who will be here and be present,” she said, in reference to the earliest date Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has mentioned as a possible “X-date” — when the U.S. would run out of funds to pay its bills. “We want someone who’s going to come to the negotiating table and recognize, ‘Hey, both sides are at fault. We’re going to bring people together.'”
Mace said House Republicans would need to see outlines of a deal to raise the debt ceiling by Wednesday to provide enough time for drafting legislative language and floor debate.
“But I don’t think the June 1 deadline is a hard stop,” Mace said. “I think you have some time there. We don’t default unless the president wants to. There’s no reason to default.”
Mace said if the U.S. government cannot pay all its bills, then it must pay them in order of importance.
“What that means is we do have to prioritize spending, which means mandatory spending first and then everything else,” Mace said.
Even so, Mace said falling into default would be catastrophic financially and harm America’s image abroad. Mace said she disagreed with former President Trump’s suggestion last week that the consequences of default could be merely psychological.
“I disagree with the premise that we should default — that should not be an option on the table,” Mace said. “Not only does it have dire consequences for us financially, but also abroad and around the world. We’re already weakened right now globally. You see China making moves, Russia making moves, Iran making moves. We want to have strength. We can’t do that if we default.”
New abortion legislation in South Carolina
Mace also said she opposes abortion legislation passed this week in the South Carolina state House that would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat had been detected, which is roughly equivalent to six weeks of gestation.
“I would not support this particular piece of legislation because of the police reporting requirements,” Mace said. “I’m a victim of rape myself. I was raped as a teenager at age 16. I couldn’t live with myself if I had to have it reported to police. Most rape victims do not report it. It’s an extremely traumatic experience. And to force that reporting to local sheriffs is wrong. It’s a non-starter.”
Mace also faulted the legislation because it imposes a limit of 12 weeks on abortion access for victims of rape and incest. And further, it also requires two doctors to certify that other exceptions have been met.
“It’s very difficult, especially those burdens on women and girls who’ve been raped or who are victims of incest,” Mace said. “That’s wrong. And that’s not where the majority of Americans are today, Republican or Democrat or independent. They’re not there with a six-week ban. They’re at 15 weeks. They’re at 20 weeks with exceptions.”
Abortion pill
Mace also denounced federal court reviews of mifepristone, one of two abortion-inducing drugs now facing legal challenges, despite longstanding Food and Drug Administration approval.
“The FDA did its job,” Mace said. “I hope the courts will support that decision. The courts should not be intervening on what the FDA can and cannot approve for use. That is literally the agency’s purpose.”
Mace said the Republican conversation about abortion has become inflexible to the point where birth control is becoming taboo.
“You have people up here that don’t want to talk about birth control,” Mace said. “In my party. It’s like, wait a minute. If you if you want to reduce the number of abortions in this country, you need to increase access to birth control. Those things have now become controversial to talk about. Which is crazy and scary at the same time.”
Other highlights:
- The Durham report: “No one can say I’m a shill for Donald Trump, but they didn’t have evidence to say that there was Russia collusion. And what you saw happen with the FBI and DOJ was wrong. It shouldn’t happen to any president, regardless of how you feel about that person. It was wrong.”
- Allegations of influence-peddling by the Biden family: “When you look at the dozens and dozens of shell companies, when you look at how the Biden family members were paid, the amount of money they were paid, who they were paying. They weren’t foreign agents. There was no business plan. The seed money went into their pockets. It didn’t go to anything else. When you see that, it looks like money laundering and wire fraud. It absolutely looks like racketeering. None of this happens without Joe Biden. None of it.”
- George Santos: “I want to see George Santos removed from Congress. I want to see him resign. There’s got to be due process. He’s not yet convicted. I’ve been saying since January that George Santos should resign. He lied to get here. He’s lying now. I don’t think he’s told the truth since getting elected. You can see him when he’s gallivanting around the Capitol or in New York he loves the attention. He loves the media frenzy that he’s created.”
- TikTok: “The kids are on Snapchat and they’re on TikTok and other apps. They’re not on Facebook. They’re not on Twitter. Time that they are on those things that’s our responsibility as parents. It’s up to the parents to decide. It’s not up to the government to decide whether or not our kids are right. The government doesn’t get to decide what businesses are in an app store or not. That’s fascism.”
- ChatGPT and artificial intelligence: “I actually encourage my staff to use chat GPT or Chat Sonic to help with writing for a news release or to summarize a bill or even draft legislation. It speeds up the time for their writing and their content. They’re able to do more with less time. The efficiency we can get out of utilizing artificial intelligence to help assist and write pieces of content is great. The worst-case scenario would be what happens with cybersecurity, what happens with deepfakes, what happens in the 2024 election with disinformation. Those are the things that we need to be concerned about.”
- Twitter under Elon Musk and the Blue check: “I think it’s a mixed bag. There are things that I love that he does, but then you want to see some of the bots cleaned up. I don’t know. It’s hard to say at this point. My campaign wants me to pay for my checkmark. I guess there are certain things you can do with it or not. I haven’t decided yet.”
Executive producer: Arden Farhi
Producers: Jamie Benson, Jacob Rosen, Sara Cook and Eleanor Watson
CBSN Production: Eric Soussanin
Show email: TakeoutPodcast@cbsnews.com
Twitter: @TakeoutPodcast
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