“Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his negotiators praised the debt ceiling deal as “transformational.” He thinks it will alter the country’s trajectory.
His two negotiators, Reps. Garret Graves (R-LA) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said it would pass. The House Freedom Caucus is very displeased, but the bill will likely pass.
“We did a conference call with our conference, and over 95% were overwhelmingly excited about what they see,” McCarthy told reporters Sunday morning.
You can read the reaction of the Freedom Caucus on this link.
Two other Freedom Caucus members, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said they don’t like the deal with Norman, calling it “insanity.”
Speaker McCarthy said he’s not worried about having to vacate the speakership. He says that while the bill isn’t something everyone wanted, this is the best result, given the divided nature of the government.
Maybe any deal is a win?
“I think (the bill) is good for the American public,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to have Republicans and Democrats be able to move this to the president. The president agrees with this bill as well.”
According to The Washington Examiner’s report, the deal includes significant Republican wins, including the clawing back of nearly $29 billion in unspent COVID relief funds, adding work requirements to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program up to age 54, clawing back the $1.9 billion appropriated to the Internal Revenue Service for the 87,000 new agents, implement a temporary 99% continuing resolution cap until all 12 appropriations bills are passed, and would restart student loan payments in 60-days.
McCarthy praised the tentative deal for its provisions cutting federal expenditures, reports The Epoch Times.
“Think about this: we were finally able to cut spending,” he said. “We’re the first Congress to vote for cutting spending year over year.
“So, you cut that back, you fully fund the veterans, you fully fund defense, but you take that non-defense spending all the way back to lower than ’22 levels.
“Now you get work requirements for [cash welfare and food stamps].”
McCarthy said the deal would also “streamline” the process of building new infrastructure. Where it currently can take years to get government authorization to build a new road, McCarthy said, the agreement would limit that review period to only a year.
“We’re gonna get America working again,” McCarthy said
McCarthy says we were able to cut spending “All the way lower than ’22 levels” Why not pre-COVID levels – 2022 was extraordinarily high?
Pedro Gonzalez claims: Thanks to Trump-endorsed Kevin McCarthy, Biden, and Democrats secured $80 billion in new funding for years to help the IRS go after more Americans with more IRS agents.
He blames Donald Trump for supporting McCarthy, but the alternative was to let the Republicans pick another speaker, and it would have been a RINO worse than he is. Unfortunately, we have a lot of Republicans who agree with much of what Democrats want. All is not as easy as it seems.
Rep. Ken Buck tweeted: I listened to Speaker McCarthy earlier tonight outline the deal with President Biden and I am appalled by the debt ceiling surrender. The bottom line is that the U.S. will have $35 trillion of debt in January, 2025. That is completely unacceptable.
Gunther Eagleman writes: The debt ceiling will remain uncapped until Jan 1, 2025… UNLIMITED SPENDING for a year and a half. SpeakerMcCarthy please tell me again how this is a good deal.