Under fire from conservatives, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked furiously Tuesday to sell fellow Republicans on the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden and win approval in time to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.
Meeting behind closed doors for more that two hours at the Capitol, McCarthy walked Republicans through the details, fielded questions and encouraged them not to lose sight of the bill’s budget savings, even though they are far less than many conservatives wanted.
“We’re going to pass the bill,” McCarthy said as he exited the session.
The hard-fought measure is now headed to a House vote Wednesday. Quick approval by both the House and Senate would ensure government checks will continue to go out to Social Security recipients, veterans and others, and prevent financial upheaval worldwide by allowing Treasury to keep paying U.S. debts.
Overall the 99-page package restricts spending for the next two years, lifts the debt limit and includes policy changes such as new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and approval of an Appalachian energy pipeline that many Democrats oppose. The House Rules Committee on Tuesday voted 7-6, with two Republicans opposed, to advance the measure to the floor, signaling the tough vote still ahead. In a big win for Republican leadership, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted in favor of the rule.
With few lawmakers expected to be fully satisfied, Biden and McCarthy are counting on pulling majority support from the political center, a rarity in divided Washington, to prevent a federal default. Some 218 votes are needed for passage in the 435-member House.
Leaders of the House Freedom Caucus lambasted the compromise as falling well short of the spending cuts they demand, and they vowed to try to halt passage by Congress. A much larger conservative faction, the Republican Study Committee, declined to take a position. Even rank-and-file centrist conservatives were not sure, leaving McCarthy desperately hunting for votes.
Biden was speaking directly to lawmakers, making more than 100 one-on-one calls, the White House said. Top administration officials are heading to Capitol Hill to brief Democrats privately ahead of Wednesday’s planned vote.
Late in the day, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the spending restrictions in the package would reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion over the decade, a top goal for the Republicans trying to curb the debt load.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said it was up to McCarthy to turn out votes from some two-thirds of the Republican majority, a high bar the speaker may not be able to reach. Still, Jeffries said the Democrats would do their part to avoid failure.
“It is my expectation that House Republicans would keep their promise and deliver at least 150 votes as it relates to an agreement that they themselves negotiated,” Jeffries said. “Democrats will make sure that the country does not default.”
“This deal fails, fails completely, and that’s why these members and others will be absolutely opposed to the deal,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said, flanked by others outside the Capitol. “We will do everything in our power to stop it.”
Ominously, the conservatives warned of potentially trying to oust McCarthy over the compromise.
“There’s going to be a reckoning,” said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.
Despite the late-night meeting at the Capitol, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said after the “healthy debate” she was still a no.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she appreciated that Biden was able to minimize the “extreme demands” Republicans made on spending, but she raised serious concerns about the food stamps and other environmental policy changes.
She also had this warning for McCarthy: “He got us here and it’s on him to deliver the votes.”
Wall Street was taking a wait-and-see approach. Stock prices were mixed in Tuesday’s trading. U.S. markets had been closed when the deal was struck over the weekend.
Overall, the package is a tradeoff that would impose some federal spending reductions for the next two years along with a suspension of the debt limit into January 2025, pushing the volatile political issue past the next presidential election. Raising the debt limit, now $31.4 trillion, would allow Treasury to continue borrowing to pay the nation’s already incurred bills.
