The Speaker of the US House of Representatives offers budget cuts for a debt reduction vote

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy presented the spending cuts that he said his fellow Republicans would demand in exchange for a vote to raise the federal government's debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion and avert a potentially catastrophic default. His proposals included cutting spending to last year's levels and capping growth at 1% annually.

McCarthy said that Republicans in Congress are ready to act and lead, adding that the House of Representatives will vote in the coming weeks on a bill to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling to an unspecified date next year. The White House last month proposed its own budget, which it said would cut the country's deficit by about $3 trillion over 10 years, although it relied on raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy rather than cutting spending to do so.