McCarthy’s focused debt ceiling goal baffles Democrats
Jack Birle
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-CA) strict focus on spending cuts and caps to the budget amid the debt ceiling negotiations is causing problems for Democrats.
The opposition party, led by President Joe Biden, has been calling for the debt ceiling to be raised without stipulations, and the GOP’s demands appear to be baffling the Democrats.
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McCarthy, Biden, and other top congressional leaders from both parties are set to meet at the White House on May 9 to discuss raising the debt ceiling. This comes after House Republicans passed a bill that authorizes the debt ceiling to be raised by $1.5 trillion or through March 31, 2024, whichever comes first. The Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 also brings spending levels back to 2022 levels, among other provisions.
And those goals McCarthy has set are items he is hesitant to negotiate on. When he fought with intransigent House members for days over the course of 15 ballots to wind up in the top spot in the House, paring back government spending was at the top of the list of promises he made.
While Democrats have set themselves lofty goals of using the budget to revolutionize the country, ushering in “transformative” policies, McCarthy is concerned about the incremental victories he said he would deliver.
McCarthy knows he has to walk a fine line to keep his caucus together. The speaker inched his debt ceiling plan over the line, losing four GOP votes, including firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in the process. But when he looks across the Capitol, he can see Democrats struggle to form their own united front to counter his plan.
Aides and lawmakers on the hill were reportedly caught off guard by the bill passing in the House, with many expecting the bill to go down in defeat in the lower chamber.
With the debt ceiling now in the courts of the Democrat-led Senate and the White House, the sides still remain at an impasse. The White House has continued to attack the House GOP on various fronts for its spending caps, including accusing them of the “biggest vote to defund law enforcement.”
The White House has not entertained any cuts, and Senate Democrats also appear to be behind that notion, even as leadership from both chambers are set to meet with Biden next week. The Senate is scheduled to hold hearings on the bill passed by the GOP-led House, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said the hearings will only show the bill is “so bad.”
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“Despite what McCarthy said, when he opened up the House, that they were going to have hearings, they were going to have amendments; they were going to have discussions, this bill was so bad that they were afraid to do that. So, we’re doing that for them. We welcome and relish the discussion in committee tomorrow,” Schumer said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
The deadline for the two sides to come to an agreement is rapidly approaching, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying the United States will default on its debts on June 1 if a debt ceiling extension is not passed.