Some hardline Republican lawmakers said Monday they would oppose a agree to raise the $31.4 trillion U.S. debt ceiling, a sign that the bipartisan deal may face a tough road through Congress before the US runs out of money next week.
Although expected, the opposition illustrates the hurdles Democratic President Joe Biden and top Republican senator Kevin McCarthy will have to overcome for the Republican-controlled House and Senate controlled by Democrats through the package.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said the deal was not enough to change the fiscal trajectory. “After this deal, our country is still going to go bankrupt,” he said on Fox News.
However, advocates predict that Congress will pass it before the United States runs out of money to pay its bills, which the Treasury Department says will happen on June 5.
“This will certainly pass. There’s no doubt about it,” said Republican Representative Dusty Johnson, who said he has spoken to dozens of fellow lawmakers.
Biden said he has also worked with the phone. “It feels great. We’ll see when the voting starts,” he told reporters.
The 99 page bill will suspend the debt limit until January 1, 2025, allowing lawmakers to set aside the issue of political risk until after the November 2024 presidential election. It will also limit a government spending over the next two years.
A first major test will take place on Tuesday, when the House Rules Committee passes the bill, in the first necessary step before a vote in the House. Although the panel often aligns closely with the leadership of the House, McCarthy was forced to include some skeptical conservatives as a price to pay to win the speaker’s support.
One of those conservatives, Representative Chip Roy, on Tuesday said he did not support the bill.
“That’s not a good deal. About $4 trillion in debt – at best – a spending freeze for two years and no serious substantive policy reform,” Roy wrote on Twitter.
Another council member, Ralph Norman, stood out against the deal.
McCarthy told reporters on Monday that he is not worried about the prospect of the package on the committee.
In the Senate, Republican Mike Lee also opposed the bill, which could lead to a difficult vote there, where any member has the power to delay action for days. Democrats control the Senate 51-49.
McCarthy has predicted it will garner the support of most of his Republicans, who control the House by a margin of 222-213. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he expected support from his side – although many on his left could also vote “no”.
Representative Raul Grijalva, a progressive Democrat, wrote on Twitter that the bill’s changes to environmental rules were “disturbing and deeply disappointing.”
Grijalva is referring to an element of the bill that would speed up the licensing process for some energy projects. The bill would also revoke unused COVID-19 funds and tighten work requirements for food assistance programs for poor Americans.
It will move some of the money away from the Internal Revenue Service, though White House officials say execution should not be truncated next time.
Initial The response has been positive from financial markets, which would plunge into chaos if the United States could not settle its securities, which form the basis of the global financial system.
But some investors are wary that the spending cuts guaranteed by McCarthy could hurt US growth. Investors are also bracing for potential volatility in the US bond market.
Republicans have argued that sharp spending cuts are needed to limit the rise in the national debt, which, at $31.4 trillion, equates to the economy’s annual output.
According to government projections, interest payments on that debt are projected to make up an increasing share of the budget in the coming decades as an aging population pushes up healthcare and retirement costs.
The deal won’t do anything to rein in those rapidly growing programs. Most of the savings will come from limiting spending on domestic programs such as housing, border control, scientific research, and other forms of government spending. spending “arbitrary”. Military spending will be allowed to increase over the next two years.
