The Biden White House had not anticipated the debt limit armageddon, which put pressure on them to postpone a portion of Biden’s most recent foreign policy excursion. Speaker McCarthy held the GOP caucus together during that time. The president was compelled to leave early as a result, which prevented any further embarrassing diplomatic gaffes—in actuality, there is a silver lining to this whole situation.
McCarthy has done a fantastic job thus far balancing on a razor’s edge considering that many people fully anticipated that he would give up and mail it in as he did in 2015. Although he appears to be taking full advantage of the situation, disaster is approaching. The agreement reached with Sleepy Joe has not been well received by the Freedom Caucus.
Red State previously published an article titled “Freedom Caucus Says McCarthy Got Rolled on the Debt Ceiling and the Evidence Indicates They Are Right,” which makes the following observation:
The deal scraps $131 billion in cuts to return bureaucracy to pre-COVID levels in favor of keeping spending at the 2023 Omnibus spending bill. Work requirements are abandoned for Medicaid. Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act,” which Goldman Sachs says costs $1.2 trillion, is retained. The REINS Act is abandoned. Biden’s unlawful student loan bailout is punted back to the courts. The IRS keeps its 87,000 new agents. You’ll hear about the $2 billion cut from the IRS this year, but that is from their proposed budget increase. It doesn’t cut that agency. The only bright light is that the deal claws back $29 billion in unspent COVID-19 baksheesh. Also, note that the two-year deal takes the debt ceiling off the table during an election year.
Here is the unsavory information that is circulating in the air and could gain traction in the coming days. It will be interesting to see if the #VacateTheChair hashtag on Twitter will persuade Freedom Caucus members to support the movement.
Will Donald Trump criticize McCarthy for an agreement that appears to have no expenditure cuts after declaring on CNN just a few days ago that McCarthy should let the Janet Yellen deadline pass in the absence of spending cuts?
Will Chip Roy, who was skillful in securing concessions for a number of Freedom Caucus members before approving a vote for McCarthy for Speaker, conclude that this is the straw that broke the camel’s back? Will he cast a vote in favor of this agreement or against it?
What will all the Trump fans throughout the fruited plain do after shouting for McCarthy’s head if Trump approves of this deal?
We sure hope not, but these is the kind of drama that Washington D.C. enjoys the most and is why these games are being played in the national capital right now.
In the meantime, Democrats are expected to support the McCarthy-Biden debt agreement and are “surprised” by the lack of concessions to Republicans.
A senior House Democrat told Axios that the majority of their caucus, “perhaps 100%,” are expected to vote in favor of the debt ceiling agreement negotiated by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
“I expect the vast majority (and perhaps 100%) of Democrats to support it,” the Senior House Democrat told Axios reporter Andrew Solender. “Contingent on final text, most are surprised by how modest the concessions appear to be.”
While it is said that House Democrats are pleased, some conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus have criticized the deal. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) both referred to the plan as a “disaster” and claimed that “no one claiming to be a conservative could justify a YES vote.”
Members of the Freedom Caucus claim that Speaker McCarthy made significant compromises on border security, the funding of an additional 87,000 IRS agents, and the failure to limit spending projects from the president’s “Build Back Better” legislation.
“Does nothing for the border. Does nothing regarding pistol braces. Does nothing regarding Presidential overreach. And in many ways kills our leverage to get them through the appropriations process,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said of the agreement.
The progressive wing of the Democratic party may yet oppose the bill in addition to conservative Democrats. U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal said that there is no certainty that the progressive movement will support the measure during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s State Of The Union.
“Well, I don’t know yet, Jake, because I haven’t seen the texts. You know I’m not a big fan of in-principle or frameworks. That’s always, you know, a problem if you can’t see the exact legislative texts. And we’re all trying to wade through spin right now,” Jayapal told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “That’s certainly what you heard from my good colleague on the other side of the aisle, is a lot of spin. But I think it will come down to what the legislative text is.”
Speaker McCarthy has expressed confidence that the bill will pass, claiming that “95%” of House GOP members are in favor of the bill. “We did a conference call with our conference and over 95% were overwhelmingly excited about what they see,” McCarthy told reporters on Sunday.
