House Republicans are planning to vote next week on a bill that would raise the US debt ceiling and enact deep cuts to US spending, with conservatives demanding additional changes and President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders refusing to offer concessions in exchange.
(Bloomberg) — House Republicans are planning to vote next week on a bill that would raise the US debt ceiling and enact deep cuts to US spending, with conservatives demanding additional changes and President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders refusing to offer concessions in exchange.
“We have an outline of a plan, and there is still input coming in,” Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Tuesday. “I am confident we will pass it.”
Republicans are betting that if the House passes the bill — which would either suspend the debt ceiling until May 2024 or raise the cap by a dollar amount estimated to cover US expenditures until then — they can intensify pressure on Democrats to consider accommodations.
Representative Kevin Hern, also an Oklahoma Republican, said the debt ceiling increase would be about $2 trillion.
But Biden — who spoke earlier Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries about the Republican effort — says the party’s leadership is united in opposition to negotiating over the debt ceiling, according to a White House statement.
The president denounced the proposals House Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered in a speech to Wall Street on Monday, saying the Republican plan would slash benefits for the working and middle classes while causing economic chaos.
Republican brinkmanship on the US borrowing limit threatens “to default on the debt, which is going to throw us in a gigantic recession and beyond unless he gets what he wants on the budget,” Biden said Tuesday. He called on McCarthy and Republicans to take the threat of default off the table and release a budget outlining his tax and spending plans.
McCarthy laid out the broad contours of the debt limit bill to his rank-and-file members behind closed doors Tuesday morning. The plan, according to lawmakers, is to cut fiscal 2024 discretionary spending by $130 billion to fiscal 2022 levels. At this point, it would be up to the Appropriations Committees to decide if any of the cuts come from the Defense Department, according to Cole.
The proposal would also claw back millions in unspent coronavirus funds and impose tougher work requirements on beneficiaries of government anti-poverty programs. It would ease energy permits on fossil fuel projects. Other details are still being fine-tuned such as a cap on future discretionary spending and whether to pull back a boost to the Internal Revenue Service budget enacted last year.
Getting the necessary 218 votes will be a heavy lift for McCarthy and his team, given they can only lose four Republicans on party-line bills.
Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee said Tuesday he remains a “no” on any debt ceiling bill but could be converted to a “yes” if he gets certain provisions. He said he plans to talk to McCarthy privately.
Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who heads the conservative Freedom Caucus, insisted later Tuesday that any debt ceiling would have to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which had popular provisions like a cut to prescription drug prices and tax credits for electric vehicles. Including a repeal in the package would shrink any budget cuts in the debt package and open moderate Democrats political attacks they had voted to raise drug prices.
Democrats say the haggling shows McCarthy can’t pass his plan.
But House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry predicted the debt ceiling plan would be approved.
“There are a lot of significant components for individual members. Whether it’s the energy portion of the bill, the regulatory changes that enabled growth or the work requirements related to additional government benefits, they all are, have enormous support across the caucus,” McHenry said.
Representative Mike Lawler, a moderate Republican from New York said he is on board with the plan, which would not impose work requirements on people with children. Some in the GOP had sought tougher work requirements on those with children over the age of 7, but that has been rejected.
“The objective here is to help people who can work get working again and not be in a state of permanent dependency,” said Lawler.
Republicans are moving forward with a vote on their debt plan as talks with Biden on raising the $31.4 trillion debt limit remain stalled.
The US could default as soon as June on its payment obligations without congressional action. An updated deadline is expected from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as soon as later this week, once tax receipts are counted.
“I support the speaker and that the speaker is moving now rather than waiting “ said Alabama Republican Robert Aderholt.
–With assistance from Jack Fitzpatrick, Jordan Fabian and Jenny Leonard.
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