WASHINGTON: Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy toiled on Wednesday to lock down the votes to pass his deal with President Joe Biden to suspend the debt ceiling and set federal spending limits, as a stream of defections from hard-right lawmakers raised the stakes for a climactic set of votes on the package.
With the nation’s first-ever default looming in days, the House was on track to begin consideration on Wednesday of a 99-page bill to defer the nation’s borrowing limit for two years – allowing the government to borrow unlimited sums as necessary to pay its obligations – in exchange for two years of spending caps and a string of policy concessions that Republicans demanded.
To muster a 218-vote majority to push the bill through the closely divided House, congressional leaders must cobble together a coalition of Republicans willing to back it and enough Democrats to make up for what was shaping up to be a substantial number of GOP defections. Multiple right-wing lawmakers have savaged the bill, arguing that it does nothing to secure the kind of deep spending cuts and rollbacks of Biden administration policies for which they have agitated. “We’re going to pass the bill,” McCarthy said.
Quick approval by the House and later in the week the Senate would ensure government checks will continue to go out to Social Security recipients, veterans and others and would prevent financial upheaval at home and abroad.
With the nation’s first-ever default looming in days, the House was on track to begin consideration on Wednesday of a 99-page bill to defer the nation’s borrowing limit for two years – allowing the government to borrow unlimited sums as necessary to pay its obligations – in exchange for two years of spending caps and a string of policy concessions that Republicans demanded.
To muster a 218-vote majority to push the bill through the closely divided House, congressional leaders must cobble together a coalition of Republicans willing to back it and enough Democrats to make up for what was shaping up to be a substantial number of GOP defections. Multiple right-wing lawmakers have savaged the bill, arguing that it does nothing to secure the kind of deep spending cuts and rollbacks of Biden administration policies for which they have agitated. “We’re going to pass the bill,” McCarthy said.
Quick approval by the House and later in the week the Senate would ensure government checks will continue to go out to Social Security recipients, veterans and others and would prevent financial upheaval at home and abroad.