Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s position is so weak that he doesn’t have the Republican votes to pass the spending cuts that he wants.
Via: Jackie Calmes in The Los Angeles Times:
We got evidence of the squeeze this week, even as McCarthy, in his on-again, off-again debt ceiling negotiations with President Biden, was full of budget-cutting bravado to reporters. Just before midnight on Monday — midnight! — the House Appropriations Committee canceled its Tuesday and Wednesday meetings when voting was scheduled on the first of the dozen bills that annually fund the federal government’s operations. Those bills have to fill in the gory details of the spending cuts that Republicans left unidentified when they passed McCarthy’s debt limit bill last month.
The stated reason for the postponement: The committee’s Republican majority wanted to give McCarthy “maximum flexibility” in his talks with Biden.
The real reason: They didn’t have the votes to pass their own bills. Failure, in turn, would have undercut McCarthy’s leverage in the negotiations.
McCarthy continues to claim that work requirements for social safety net programs are on the table, but the White House and congressional Democrats say that they are not.
Kevin McCarthy needs Democratic votes to pass any deal, but he will never get them if he sticks to the cuts that the far right wants.
Speaker McCarthy is a fraudster in an empty suit.
The good elements of the potential deal that Biden is negotiating include automatic provisions to prevent a government shutdown and a debt limit increase through the 2024 election.
President Biden is making sure that House Republicans only get one bite at the apple.
The heat is on McCarthy and Democrats should not let up until he either agrees to a deal that is acceptable to them or passes a clean debt limit increase.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
