Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are realizing that they have been duped and Speaker McCarthy is selling fake cuts in the debt ceiling deal.
Paul tweeted:
Fake conservatives agree to fake spending cuts. Deal will increase mandatory spending ~5%, increase military spending ~3%, and maintain current non-military discretionary spending at post-COVID levels. No real cuts to see here.
Conservatives have been sold out once again!
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 28, 2023
Paul is correct in that Republicans didn’t get any actual spending cuts. The deal will overall increase spending. If conservatives feel like they have been sold out by McCarthy, they are more than free to vote against the deal and crash the US economy.
The nightmare scenario for the country could be that McCarthy finds a way to squeak the bill through the House and then Senators like Rand Paul and Mike Lee team up to slow the Senate to a crawl, and the nation defaults anyway.
As Republicans are finding out more about what is in the bill, they are realizing that they have been had. There aren’t any big spending cuts, and President Biden managed to free the debt limit hostage without much damage at all.
It turns out that Kevin McCarthy was way more afraid of being blamed for a default than he let on. President Biden conceded some token tinkering around the edges, but Sen. Paul was right in his tweet when he called what Kevin McCarthy came back home from the White House with fake cuts.
The agreement could die in the House next week, but even if it gets to the Senate, the GOP anger is real, and getting any potential legislation to avoid a default passed in time is far from a sure thing.
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
