Trump's former OMB director calls GOP 'incompetent' on recent debt ceiling deal negotiations

Former President Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, says that the GOP seems to be caving to the Biden administration on debt ceiling negotiations. 

"I’m absolutely amazed at how bad the parameters of the deal are that are emerging," Vought said on C-SPAN on Friday. "It’s basically almost worse than a clean debt limit."

The White House said earlier this week that it has to negotiate with Congress and find a compromise. The Democrats for months called for a "clean" debt ceiling increase, while the Republicans have called for a plan that would crack down on government spending.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says that he feels "closer to an agreement" in regard to negotiations about the debt ceiling. 

“I feel closer to an agreement now than I did a long time before because I see progress,” McCarthy told reporters on Saturday. “I don't give up. It doesn't matter how many times it takes; you want to make sure you get a deal worthy of the American people.”

Vought said that the House has leverage over President Joe Biden, but has failed to use it. 

"I’m actually amazed at how incompetent they have been," Vought said, referring to the GOP.

"They have never been in a stronger place," he continued, according to Fox News. "They have passed a bill that this town and the country did not think was possible, they kept their team together, they have 75-25 polling to their backs, they had the Democrats in a situation where they had said you did not negotiate for months, and yet up against a deadline that’s not a real deadline… they just completely caved."

He also accused House Republicans of buying into the Democrats' narrative about the government being on the verge of "default."

"I think there has been an unwillingness on the negotiations on the House side’s part to understand that the crisis in some respects is manufactured," Vought said. "And so, if you buy into the notion of default, that it’s actual default – and it’s not. Default is not paying the Treasury's principle and interest, that was never a consideration."