McCarthy Agrees Not to Cut Social Security, Medicare in Debt Talks, Manchin Says – By Michael Rainey (The Fiscal Times) / Jan 26, 2023
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia centrist, played a key role in an evenly divided Senate over the last two years. Democrats may have gained a seat in the Senate, but Manchin appears to still be right in the middle of critical policy talks.
While other Democrats have rejected the idea of negotiating with Republicans over raising the debt limit, Manchin has urged the White House to engage in talks, and on Wednesday the senator himself met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to discuss the issue.
Manchin told reporters afterward that McCarthy agreed not to include cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his upcoming — though as yet unscheduled — talks with President Joe Biden. “He was very receptive and wants to negotiate and wants to sit down and talk,” Manchin said. “My sense is Kevin McCarthy wants this place to work. He doesn’t want to go through this theatrics to the point to where we have come to the cliff and how much damage is done by getting to the cliff.”
Manchin said earlier this week that he thinks the debt ceiling provides a good opportunity to talk about important fiscal issues, though he’d prefer not to include cuts to Social Security and Medicare. “No cuts to anybody that’s receiving their benefits, no adjustments to that. They’ve earned it. They paid into it. Take that off the table,” he told CNN last weekend. “But everyone’s using that as a leverage.”
