Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was a major impediment to House Speaker and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) becoming Speaker, but he has since changed his mind.
“I’d give him an ‘A,'” the congressman told CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju. “I don’t give it lightly. I think he’s done a good job.”
“I think he’s doing better than expected,” Arizona Republican Representative Andy Biggs, another erstwhile critic, said.
They praised him despite the fact that both voted against his debt-ceiling legislation.
“As our nation is careening into a $32 trillion debt, Congress shouldn’t be making final changes at 2 a.m. – the morning of the vote – to legislation raising the debt limit $1.5 trillion,” Gaetz said of his vote.
“While I applaud the work of my Republican colleagues to demand better energy policy, regulatory reform, welfare-to-work requirements, and less spending, a troubling fact remains. This plan will increase America’s debt by $16 trillion over the next ten years,” he added.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“Gaslighting nearly $50 trillion in debt to America is something my conscious cannot abide by at this time,” he stated.
“Our national debt is a top national security threat. I have never voted to raise the debt ceiling in my time in Congress – even while President Trump was in the Oval Office — and didn’t today for the same reasons,” Biggs stated. “We owe the American people and our future generations sound and responsible fiscal policy. Increasing the national debt to ‘only’ $47 trillion over ten years — an increase of over $14 trillion from today — is misguided and perpetuates Washington’s spending problem.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a one-time fierce critic of McCarthy’s, praised his job performance so far. “I’d give him an ‘A,’” he told me. “I don't give it lightly. I think he's done a good job.”
Andy Biggs, who ran against McCarthy: “I think he's doing better than expected,” he said— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 27, 2023
Speaker McCarthy was confident he had the votes to raise the debt ceiling before Republicans passed it.
In an interview with Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo questioned McCarthy if he had enough votes to pass the bill, which proposes suspending the debt limit until it rises by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever happens first. The law includes spending cuts as well as commitments to promote economic growth.
“We do have a very small majority, only five seats, one of the smallest we have ever had,” McCarthy noted on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I cannot imagine someone in our conference that would want to go along with [President Joe] Biden’s reckless spending,” he said, dismissing a discussion about a tiny number of Republicans who apparently oppose the proposal.
The Speaker noted that “everybody’s had input” throughout the plan’s discussions over the past months, but he also warned that most members will not get “100 percent” of what they want. Furthermore, he chastised Biden for refusing to hold talks for the roughly 80 days since the last round of talks in early February, according to the Daily Wire.
However, President Joe Biden has stated that he will not negotiate the debt ceiling with Speaker McCarthy.
“The United States have never — has never in our history failed to pay our debts. That is something that we have never done ever, again, in our history of this country,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“We’re not a deadbeat nation. Avoiding default is Congress’s responsibility. And they should act in — on it without preconditions as they have done in Democratic and Republican administrations, and they should do that immediately,” she said.
That’s such a disingenuous statement. When you have a debt ceiling, which means you can’t spend beyond that limit, and then you go and spend beyond it, you can’t then cry foul when people point out how you’ve been utterly irresponsible by spending beyond the debt ceiling and they don’t want to reward you by increasing the limit. And that’s exactly what the Democrats do every time the debt ceiling argument arises. Instead of claiming the US always pays its debts, they should be ashamed of going beyond the debt limit and promise to work on getting their insatiable appetite for buying votes with taxpayer dollars under control. That’s what congressional spending has become.
“House Republicans are holding our economy hostage and threatening default, crashing the economy, jeopardizing hardworking Americans’ retirement, and causing millions of Americans to lose their jobs,” she stated.
It is the Democrats who are holding the country hostage. By constantly outspending what we earn, they simply print more money and add it to the money supply. That results in the most insidious tax of all: inflation.
“As the President said yesterday, he’s happy to meet with Speaker McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended. That is not negotiable, and we have been very clear about this for the past several months. We have not minced words here.”
“House Republicans are holding the economy hostage, threatening Americans’ jobs and retirement savings unless we and the Senate agree on an extreme MAGA wish list of slashing education, veterans’ healthcare, and Meals on Wheels; taking away healthcare for millions of Americans; and sending manufacturing jobs overseas,” said the press secretary.
“It’s increase — it’ll increase cost of working families, as I’ve talked about before from here at this podium. And what this bill will do — it’ll kill jobs, and it’s all to pay for tax cuts for the super-rich and profitable companies.”
The Republicans need to do a better job at trashing Democrat liars who continue to use the thoroughly debunked argument of tax cuts for the rich. Under President Trump’s tax cuts, the lower middle-class and working-class families saw the largest decrease percentage-wise in their taxes, meaning they got to keep more of what they earned than any other group in America. So, the argument of tax cuts for the rich is a load of bunk and Republicans need to point it out. They need to take that lie away from the Democrats.
“It’s not how we grow our economy. The President has been very clear how he sees our economy moving forward. He has actually put forth pieces of legislation and policy on how he sees this — the economy moving forward. And it’s not trickle-down economics. It is building the economy from the bottom up, middle out, and making sure we leave no Americans behind — we leave no one behind,” she said.
“And what we’re seeing from what Republicans have put forward: It will leave people behind. It will hurt Americans, including veterans, including our seniors — just Americans across the board.”
“So, again, we took a step back. We are not negotiating on this. We have been very clear it is their constitutional duty to take action,” she said.
