McCarthy Preps GOP Debt Deal to Secure Biden’s Involvement in Talks

Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently gathered all of the House Republicans together and showed them his plan to boost America’s debt limit. The package would stop our country from spending too much in future years, as well as make other regulations. This is his first attempt to get President Joe Biden involved in the decision-making process.

The majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives, who usually disagree a lot, are surprisingly on board with an idea proposed by McCarthy. He spoke about his plan to Wall Street earlier this week. It’s not finished yet but is being worked on. Since the Democrats are in control of the Senate, it likely won’t be passed there. Even so, McCarthy wants to pass the package from the House so that he can start discussions with the White House.

Rep. Tom Cole said that the bill could be voted on as soon as next week and he is sure that it will pass. Some people from the House Freedom Caucus, even those who did not initially support McCarthy to become the Speaker, seemed interested in his debt ceiling proposal. But others were still doubtful, which shows how much control McCarthy has on the majority group.

Congressman Matt Gaetz, from Florida, did not completely agree with the plan that was discussed on Tuesday. Congressman Clay Higgins, from Louisiana, said when he left the meeting that they were still discussing what this plan should be.

Changes are happening fast to show how important the upcoming debt ceiling debates will be. This is a fight that is going to happen over the next few weeks and months and Vice President Biden has to figure out how to handle this divided government, where Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives. They have a lot of power and it’s going to make things very difficult for Biden.

The White House has said no to talking with McCarthy about the debt limit unless he offers an official budget plan. Joe Biden’s helpers don’t think McCarthy will be able to get everyone to agree on his proposal. The White House called out McCarthy’s speech at the New York Stock Exchange where he talked about his plan saying “a speech isn’t good enough”.

The government thinks it needs to increase the amount of money it has available to pay debts – currently this is $31 trillion dollars. To tide them over, they are using special methods which will eventually run out so they need more money soon – probably by the summer!

House Speaker McCarthy has been working hard to get together different groups of Republicans. On Tuesday, he and his team had a plan they discussed in a private meeting. The idea is really big, but unfortunately the White House won’t like it.

The debt limit will increase until the next election in 2024 and spending will go back to what it was in 2022. We could get back billions of dollars from unused COVID-19 relief money and limit future spending every year for the coming ten years to just 1%.

McCarthy’s plan would mean that people who receive government help must work, and it will make the federal safety net smaller. It also has a plan to drill oil and gas, which would undo many of President Biden’s plans to fight climate change.

Rep. Dan Bishop from the Freedom Caucus said that it looks like they might pass a very important proposal with support from 218 or more people. But by Tuesday morning, nothing was certain according to someone who was told not to talk about what happened in the meeting.

Voting on the proposed plan soon won’t actually mean anything since it won’t be accepted by the Democrats in control of the Senate. This means it’s easier for Republicans to get behind this plan even if they view it as just a beginning for talks with Biden.

Congressman Scott Perry from Pennsylvania said Monday night that the plan is going in a positive direction, but he still needs more information. Another Congressman named Dusty Johnson from South Dakota believes Kevin McCarthy will get the votes he needs to pass this plan (which will be 218 out of all votes). Lastly, Stephen Groves wrote this report.