McCarthy-Biden Debt Limit Deal Clears First Hurdle in Key House Committee

The debt limit deal negotiated by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy has cleared its first hurdle as Congress prepares to vote on the measure before the June 5 default date. The House Rules Committee advanced the legislation to the House floor in a vote late Tuesday evening. All four Democrats and two Republicans voted against the measure, with seven other Republicans voting in the affirmative. The two GOP dissenters — Congressmen Chip Roy and Ralph Norman — have called the legislation “not a good deal … with no substantive policy reforms” and “insanity” respectively.Congressman Thomas Massie — a libertarian who often votes against key spending priorities of Congressional leadership — kept his cards close to his chest as the hearing kicked off, but eventually offered his blessing to the legislation. “I’m reluctant to disclose how I might vote on this rule at this moment because then all the cameras leave,” Mr. Massie said, which elicited a laugh from the crowd.Mr. Massie did support advancing the bill to the House floor so that every member could express their opinions on the legislation, though he himself did not commit to voting for the bill on final passage. “If we want to control the overall amount of spending and if there are policies or things that we don’t see happening that need to happen, or things that shouldn’t be happening in the administrative branch, then that is our opportunity,” to cut spending Mr. Massie said of budget negotiations that will happen later this year. “I don’t like the process that led to this bill, I’m not going to lie.”Mr. Massie’s equivocation is a reminder that Mr. McCarthy will likely have to rely on Democrats on the House floor if he hopes to pass the bill. A center-left caucus in the House, the New Democrat Coalition, publicly endorsed the bill Monday, buoying hopes that Mr. McCarthy can count on a substantial number of Democrats. Messrs. Biden and McCarthy “have achieved a bipartisan agreement that will save our country from default until 2025 and protect our nation from economic collapse,” the group said in a statement. There are 94 members of the New Democrat Coalition serving in the House. So far, there are dozens of Republicans who have denounced the legislation. The conservative Freedom Caucus has said they are trying to have less than half of the House Republican conference vote for the final measure. That a deal had been reached “in principle” was announced by Messrs. Biden and McCarthy late Saturday evening. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, as it is known, is 99 pages long and includes a number of modest changes to federal spending and regulations. The two men agreed that the debt limit must be pushed high enough so that this level of brinksmanship does not occur in the shadow of the 2024 elections. The bill will raise the debt limit by more than $2 trillion — pushing the next debt limit fight to January 2025 at the current pace of spending. The only two spending areas to see year-over-year increases are the Pentagon and veterans’ services. All other discretionary spending — from healthcare, education and research to green energy investments — will be capped at a level that will result in hundreds of billions of dollars in savings over the next six years. Mr. McCarthy’s team also won a victory by slashing the budget of the Internal Revenue Service. In total, more than $20 billion will be cut from the agency responsible for collecting taxes — a 25 percent cut to its total budget. Republicans took aim at the IRS early in this Congress, passing a bill that would rescind funding for the more than 80,000 new IRS agents who were hired as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act last year. The Biden administration agrees with the conservative House members that the deal does not represent a significant change in federal spending. “It’s flat,” one White House source told NBC News of the deal. “It’s a difference of about $1 billion. “In a divided government, we’re not going to get” the spending levels Democrats want.Appeasing his right flank is a key priority for Mr. McCarthy. Congressman Eli Crane — a Freedom Caucus member who believed the original Republican debt limit proposal did not go far enough — told CNN that he has had conversations with some of his Freedom Caucus colleagues about calling for a vote of no confidence in the speaker, which could lead to another seemingly endless voting process to either retain Mr. McCarthy or choose a new leader.“It does come up from time to time,” Mr. Crane said of the possibility of removing Mr. McCarthy. “We look at all of the alternatives and contingency plans that could play out over the next two years.”

McCarthy-Biden Debt Limit Deal Clears First Hurdle in Key House Committee

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