WASHINGTON — Hardline conservative Republicans vowed Tuesday to do everything possible to sink the bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling, with Austin Rep. Chip Roy promising a “reckoning” for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and at least one other colleague threatening to oust the new speaker.
The bill cleared a key initial hurdle when the House Rules Committee voted Tuesday night to advance it, over Roy’s objection, setting up a Wednesday vote by the full House.
McCarthy and President Joe Biden announced their deal over the weekend, days before the government is projected to exhaust its borrowing authority, which would trigger an economy-devastating default.
The compromise would suspend the debt limit until Jan. 1, 2025 in exchange for some Republican demands, such as spending restraints and expanded work requirements for food stamps.
But the deal jettisons many top conservative priorities contained in a bill passed by the House last month: deeper spending cuts, elimination of billions in funding for new IRS agents and a rollback of green energy incentives intended to tackle climate change.
The House bill also included a shorter extension of the debt ceiling, ensuring another showdown ahead of next year’s presidential election.
This deal averts that possibility, and critics denounced it as a “blank check” that could add $4 trillion or more to the national debt over the next 18 months.
“Not one Republican should vote for this deal,” Roy said. “It is a bad deal. No one sent us here to borrow an additional $4 trillion to get absolutely nothing in return.”
Roy spoke at a press conference with other members of the Freedom Caucus, which features some of the most far-right Republicans in the House.
McCarthy and Biden are both working to sell the deal to skeptics at the ideological edges of their own parties.
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, said on CNN that he and other progressives are leaning “no” on the deal. They want to avoid a default, but expect the deal to pass regardless how they vote. They also want to register opposition to the expanded work requirements.
“Why is the president having to make any sort of ransom payment?” Casar said. “On principle, I think it’s important for a significant number of progressives to say we don’t stand for that, and we are never going to stand for that.”
The president’s budget director, Shalanda Young, sidestepped progressives’ complaints. She also resisted claiming victory, which would inflame Republicans.
“This is where you’d expect a bipartisan agreement to land. It’s just the reality,” she told reporters at a White House briefing. “We’re in divided government, and both sides have thoughts about the trajectory of the country on spending.”
Both McCarthy and Biden have been upbeat about the deal’s prospects, telling reporters it should be wrapped up before June 5, the approximate deadline identified by the Treasury Department.
Freedom Caucus members are trying to ensure enough Republicans jump ship to scuttle the deal.
Reps. Michael Cloud of Victoria and Keith Self of McKinney joined Roy and the others at Tuesday’s press conference.
Cloud said the deal abandons Republican promises to change how Washington works and significantly reduce spending.
“This deal plays the same fuzzy-math shell game, fiscal games, that this place has played for years to use the American people as collateral to build a $31 trillion debt,” he said.
Self said the work requirements are only temporary but come with new exemptions that are permanent, a move he described as “sleight of hand.”
“We find ourselves fractured because we didn’t stand strong for the American people,” Self, serving his first term, said of the deal struck by McCarthy.
Roy, Self and Cloud were among the group of conservative Republicans who withheld their votes to make McCarthy speaker until he agreed to concessions designed to give their faction more input and control, particularly in big moments such as this.
McCarthy granted the conservative bloc several seats on the Rules Committee, which controls how and when bills come to the floor. Roy holds one of those seats.
As the Rules Committee hearing on the bill stretched into Tuesday evening, Roy went through major sections of the bill asking pointed questions intended to highlight how his group views GOP leadership claims of wins for their side as nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Roy said the bill would have little to no impact on the fiscal direction of the country.
He and one other conservative Republican later joined Democrats on the panel in voting against sending the bill to the floor but their opposition was in vain.
That’s because another conservative representative on the committee, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted in favor of the measure, bringing the overall tally to 7-6 to advance it. The full House is now expected to consider the bill on Wednesday.
Roy and most other Freedom Caucus members demurred when asked if they will move to oust McCarthy over the outcome of the debt ceiling fight.
Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., wouldn’t commit to leading an effort to remove McCarthy but told reporters after the press conference, “I think it’s got to be done.”
Caucus members were clear the deal threatens to blow up whatever unity House Republicans have enjoyed this session.
The GOP conference has been “torn asunder,” Roy said, and Republicans might need to revisit their leadership structure.
“There is going to be a reckoning about what just occurred unless we stop this bill by tomorrow,” he said.
