While US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has attempted to seize the moment and force through a bill raising the debt ceiling on the Republican Party\u2019s terms, dissent in the ranks of the GOP\u2019s narrow majority threatens to block the bill\u2019s passage, with some lawmakers saying it doesn\u2019t go nearly far enough.
On Monday, McCarthy announced the GOP-led US House of Representatives would seek to pass a bill raising the debt ceiling but including steep budget cuts he has demanded in negotiations with the White House. However, after a closed-door meeting with GOP leaders on Tuesday, the road to passage seems harder than anticipated as McCarthy\u2019s fellow party members are demanding more from the unique moment.
“This is the single biggest point of leverage that will exist in these two years,” one Republican lawmaker told US media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several others who spoke with US media indicated they felt the bill \u201cshould go further,\u201d that they were \u201cin favor of very aggressive cuts\u201d and \u201creally want to see some real restraints and fiscal cuts, not just promises.\u201d
US Rep. Andrew Biggs (R-AZ), a former chair of the party\u2019s right-wing Freedom Caucus who recently challenged McCarthy for the speakership, said McCarthy\u2019s proposed cuts were a \u201clong ways away\u201d from demands McCarthy made just weeks ago in negotiations with the administration of US President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
With a majority of just four votes in the lower chamber, a handful of dissenting Republicans could gum up the works for McCarthy. Regardless, such a deal is unlikely to make it through the Senate, where both the GOP and Democrats have a minority, but the handful of Independent lawmakers all tend to vote with the Democrats.
In a letter to Biden sent in late March, McCarthy called for returning domestic spending to pre-pandemic levels – a dramatic budget cut he has claimed would generate more than $4 trillion in savings, mostly through cuts to social programs, although his office has not provided details on how that number was arrived at.
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), the Freedom Caucus\u2019 present chair, voiced a similar concern on Tuesday about the new bill. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s in the package completely. That\u2019s the issue,\u201d he told US media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to McCarthy, the bill will seek to establish 2024 spending levels equivalent to the 2022 budget, and limit budget growth over the next decade to 1% per year.
The debt ceiling has been stalled at $31.4 trillion since mid-January, when the Republican-controlled House declined to pass a new bill lifting the spending limit, saying they would only vote a new bill through if it included deep spending cuts. So far, Democrats have rejected the GOP\u2019s requests for negotiation, saying the debt ceiling should be raised without fanfare as a necessary function of governance.
\u201cWithout exaggeration, American debt is a ticking time bomb that will detonate unless we take serious, responsible action. Yet how has President Biden reacted to this issue? He has done nothing,\u201d McCarthy said on Monday. \u201cDebt limit negotiations are an opportunity to examine our nation\u2019s finances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The danger posed by exceeding the debt ceiling is severe: the Treasury estimates that by midsummer, it will have exhausted its \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d adopted in January and the government will default on its debt, triggering an economic crisis.
Only by passing a new bill raising the debt ceiling can Congress appropriate new funds to keep paying the country\u2019s bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n