President Biden and Republicans remain at odds over how to handle the debt ceiling, as Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy requested a meeting with Biden Tuesday to push for spending cuts before agreeing to raise the debt limit. The White House and Democrats have rejected this idea. Republicans agreed to raising the debt ceiling with no conditions three times during Trump’s presidency.

Yesterday, advocacy groups joined with progressive lawmakers to demand Republicans stop cutting essential social services, including Medicare and the food assistance program SNAP, which was recently slashed after being increased during the pandemic. This is Apryl Lewis from Action North Carolina.

Apryl Lewis: “Conservatives are trying to increase costs, paperwork and bureaucracy that will only put families like mine at risk of losing access to food assistance and increasing the risk of homelessness, because the same conservatives are increasing costs for low-income families by — excuse me, by protecting tax loopholes for the wealthy. These wealthy stakeholders and corporations should pay their fair share, and by reversing the Trump tax cuts alone would save $2 trillion.”