During a House Republican Conference meeting on the debt ceiling on Tuesday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy got a standing ovation.
House Republicans convened in the Capitol building to discuss the debt ceiling agreement and applauded McCarthy. The Speaker said he would allow Republicans time to discuss the debt-limit agreement, dubbed the Fiscal Responsibility Act. That’s a lot better than what the Democrats usually did. Republican House members would receive notice at 1 AM that a bill was online and the vote would be in a few hours.
The House is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday.
McCarthy pointed out that the debt agreement will provide Republicans more leverage in the upcoming spending bill struggle, which conservatives like Representative Tom Massie (R-KY) have acknowledged.
“First chance in 10 years, I’m not missing it”
“First chance in 10 years, I’m not missing it” Massie says of supporting debt deal
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The IRS will not hire any agents as a result of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, according to Representative Garret Graves (R-LA). The debt limit bill cuts the IRS’s budget by $1.4 billion, and the compromise reached between McCarthy and President Joe Biden for future appropriations bills reduces IRS funding by $10 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $10 billion in fiscal year 2025.
Graves, one of the top negotiators with the Biden White House, received a standing ovation when he stated that the White House had complained that Democrats did not get any priority funding or legislation in the measure.
According to the Louisiana Republican, the White House “said over and over — how do we get 10 Dem senators to vote for this? There isn’t anything in here for us. And know what? There’s not.”
Graves urged House Republicans to continue supporting the bill, saying “You gave the speaker a strong hand, please stick with us now.”
Not everyone was going to get everything they wanted. That’s the nature of government. But this bill is the beginning of a process. In 1994, after the Gingrich revolution, they didn’t get everything they wanted right away either. This bill is the best we could get at this point in time. Remember, Joe Biden for months said that he would not negotiate. He thought he ruled the entire federal government like a dictator.
Like him or not, McCarthy put Biden into a corner. Biden eventually read the tea leaves, and he had to come to the table because, after all the White House spin and rhetoric, the House Republicans passed a bill with a debt ceiling increase and they couldn’t continue lying when time was of the essence.
Could the bill have been better? Possibly, but I’ll take this bill as a win for a good start.
