On Friday, the nation’s governors were invited to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House, where Biden pitched his “Finish the Job” theme for America and reprised the other themes of his State of the Union address that he delivered on Tuesday.
On Saturday evening, Biden and Harris, and their spouses, will host a black tie dinner at the White House with the governors, who are in town for the National Governors Association meeting.
Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbot of Texas, and Mike Dunleavy of Alaska did not attend.
Instead on Friday, Gov. DeSantis and the leadership of the Florida legislature announced the largest tax relief proposal in Florida history to save Florida families a historic $2 billion during the 2023–2024 fiscal year. Gov. Abbott was welcoming a trade delegation from Japan to his state, and Gov. Dunleavy was monitoring the shooting down by the military of an unknown flying object over the Arctic Ocean near Deadhorse.
Biden told governors attending on Friday that he doesn’t believe Republicans in the U.S. House are serious about “holding the debt hostage.”
Biden said, “I believe we can be fiscally responsible without threatening our country. I don’t think my colleagues are really serious – I hope they’re not – about holding the debt hostage to cuts they want to make in certain things that I may or may not want to make.”
Conservatives in Congress have said that a raising of the nation’s borrowing limit must be tied to spending cuts.
