Republicans hit back at Biden's budget after White House attacks Freedom Caucus proposal

At least one faction of the House GOP has spelled out some of its budget priorities -- and now the White House and the right-wing Freedom Caucus are in a war of words over their proposed spending cuts. 

'When it comes to the serious issues of meeting America's financial obligations, Joe Biden is acting like a child,' Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a news conference Wednesday. 

The conservative firebrand invited Biden to come to the Freedom Caucus meeting Wednesday night to  sit down and discuss budget cuts after the White House released its own $6.8 trillion budget proposal earlier this month.

'I suggest you set down the ice cream, and come and join us,' she said. ''f you do attend, I hope that you bring some teleprompters.'

The White House has been eager to frame the 45-member Freedom Caucus as the Congressional GOP writ-large, and this week they deemed the budget proposal a 'five-alarm fire.' 

For every day this week they will highlight a different area of the caucus' budget they disagree with. 

The Freedom Caucus budget would cap overall discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for 10 years while allowing for 1 percent growth per year, which would be a $131 billion cut from current levels. 

'We're not going to be sending money to pro prostitution, LGBTQ groups in Colombia, because that's what you're doing with your tax dollars right now,' said Rep. Chip Roy,

'When it comes to the serious issues of meeting America's financial obligations, Joe Biden is acting like a child,' Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a news conference Wednesday.

It would also claw back unspent Covid-19 funds, money to expand the IRS and elsewhere, which members have said would save $3 trillion over the long term. 

The hardline Freedom Caucus will have to come together with the wider Republican conference to get behind a spending plan that can get through Congress. The Republican Study Committee and the Budget Committee are also expected to release their own proposals in coming months. 

While Senate Republicans have largely stayed out of the budget and debt ceiling battle, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, joined Freedom Caucus members at their news conference to highlight the need for steep spending cuts  

'We're not going to be sending money to pro prostitution, LGBTQ groups in Colombia, because that's what you're doing with your tax dollars right now,' said Rep. Chip Roy, referring to a report that the State Department gave $16,000 to Fundacion Sentiido, a group that supports LGBT issues and 'sex worker' rights in the South American nation. 

'Do you think China given gives a rat's rear end about that?' Roy said. 'While they're building up their navy and they want to kick our butts? No, they don't.' 

But the White House said with the proposal Republicans are 'endangering public safety, raising costs for families, shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and undermining American workers, weakening national security, and hurting seniors.'

Biden has argued the budget would cut all spending other than defense by 25 percent, a characterization the caucus has disputed. 

The White House has also said the budget would weaken border security and safety -- claiming it would lead to some 2,000 Border Patrol agents losing their jobs. 

The Freedom Caucus has not specifically disputed cuts for the Department of Homeland Security, instead saying that what the border needs is not more resources but policy changes out of the White House. 

'That's like a pyromaniac tried to teach you about fire prevention. Like is he really Is he serious?' Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., said of Biden's criticism of his border provisions. 

'We're going after the wasteful, woke and weaponized federal bureaucracy and the spending that fuels it,' the group said on Twitter earlier this week. 'Not border security.' 

The Biden budget calls for funding to hire another 350 border agents, puts $535 million for border technology at and between ports of entry, and $40 million to combat fentanyl trafficking. 

The Freedom Caucus also wants to impose work requirements on welfare programs like Medicaid, SNAP and housing assistance. Instead of working out a full-year budget, they propose a continuing resolution that would put government spending back to fiscal year 2019 levels before the Covid-19 pandemic while a new budget works through the appropriations process. 

'None of us have ever voted for a for a debt ceiling increase, but we would we would entertain it we would considered if, if we got some conditions,' said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. 

'How about clawing back the student loan forgiveness plan?,' Biggs went on. ' How about cutting Biden's invasive IRS our army? The House has already passed that so we need the Senate take it. That's another $80 billion. How about elimination of the wacky crazy Green New Deal tax credits and subsidies subsidies? That's $350 billion. Now you're talking real money.' 

The White House also argues Republicans are trying to defund the police because their budget would eliminate 400 local law enforcement positions, cut money to the FBI and could mean a hiring freeze at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

'Defund the FBI' has been a rallying cry for some of the GOP's far-right after the raid on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago and reports the agency was targeting threats at school board meetings. 

'We just think you know that maybe there's some things we should stop funding,' Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, said. 'We should stop sending money to the bureaucracy to do bad things. We shouldn't pay them and give them funds to go after parents at school board meetings. We shouldn't pay them to monitor people's and and manage people's Twitter accounts.' 

Caught up in the crossfire of the budget fight is the battle over the debt ceiling.

The country is expected to hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling this summer and Republicans want to see spending cuts in order to bring down the deficit. Biden wants a clean raise of the debt ceiling as have been done for past presidents, including Donald Trump.

McCarthy, who hosted Biden on Capitol Hill last week for a St. Patrick's Day luncheon, said, at that event, he confronted the president about the lack of negotiations on the debt ceiling.

'I just saw the president again on St. Patrick's Day, Friday,' the speaker told reporters in Florida over the weekend.

'I sat down with him and said, you said we'd meet again. Every day that passes, you put the economy in jeopardy,' he said.

Biden has said he wants to see a Republican budget before he begins any negotiation on government spending or cuts in funds.

The political standoff has raised concerns that the country may see its first-ever default, which would be devastating for the economy - both here and abroad.