Kevin McCarthy Targets Elimination of Budget Deficits in Debt-Ceiling Talks

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Republicans would seek to eliminate the annual budget deficit in talks with Democrats over raising the debt limit, a demand that would likely require deep cuts to federal spending. 

Since they took control of the House last month, Republicans have been arguing that Congress should cut spending in exchange for GOP support for raising the debt limit, now at about $31.4 trillion. In an address Monday ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Mr. McCarthy (R., Calif.) laid out the size of the cuts Republicans...