Debt ceiling: Republicans emerge from fight complaining about ‘Democrat bill’
Ryan King
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Republicans emerged from the debt ceiling fight blasting party leadership for pushing a bill that passed through the House with more support from Democrats than the GOP.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pulled his caucus together to pass a bill and cut a deal with the White House, but the final product disappointed some members.
DEBT LIMIT: HOW THE COMPROMISE COMPARES TO THE ORIGINAL GOP DEBT CEILING BILL
“It confirms that Speaker McCarthy capitulated on nearly every front during negotiations with the Biden White House,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told the Washington Examiner. “The McCarthy plan caters to the Democrats’ radical wish list. You have to question if Speaker McCarthy is more willing to meet Democrat priorities than the priorities of his own party.”
The bill that passed the House on Wednesday had more Democratic support (165 votes) than Republican (149), leading some GOP members to question McCarthy’s strategy of courting the other side for support.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) dangled the threat of forcing McCarthy out of the speakership, saying it is “inescapable to me. It has to be done.”
McCarthy, as part of 15 rounds of voting for him to assume the speakership, promised House members the threshold to force a motion to vacate, a threat to remove him from the top spot, would be reduced to a single member requesting the move.
Republicans are frustrated the party squandered its leverage with Democrats and didn’t draw out nearly as many concessions on spending as it perhaps could have.
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) slammed the fact the vote drew more Democratic support than Republican, despite McCarthy saying there was not a single win in the bill for Democrats.
“More Dems than GOP voted for this ‘fiscally responsible’ bill, a bill that completely eliminates the debt limit for the rest of Biden’s presidency,” Mills tweeted. “The term for a bill that gets more Democrat votes than Republican votes is a Democrat bill.”
https://twitter.com/CoryMillsFL/status/1664090813599559680
“Tonight, more Democrats voted for the Biden-McCarthy agreement than Republicans, and you have to ask why? The Biden-McCarthy agreement was another missed opportunity to cut spending on a scale that can truly start to turn our nation away from a fiscal cliff,” Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), another critic, tweeted.
https://twitter.com/RepBrecheen/status/1664096472646709249?s=20
Despite the attacks from inside the party, McCarthy bragged about successfully putting Democrats “on record in support of work requirements for welfare, slashing IRS funding, and cutting spending.
“So you can be sure I’m coming back for more,” McCarthy tweeted.
Senate leadership, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), largely deferred to Biden and McCarthy to negotiate a deal. But now they are responsible for passing a version of their own.
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Now the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 heads to the Senate for consideration as the June 5 “X-date” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen forecasted approaches.
Under the bill, nondefense and nonveteran discretionary spending growth will be effectively kept down until 2024 before increasing by roughly 1% in 2025. In its present form, the bill could reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.