With McCarthy finally elected speaker, House GOP readies for fiscal showdowns
WASHINGTON
House Republicans are set to steer the country toward a series of fiscal showdowns as they look to force the White House to agree to massive spending cuts, threatening a return to the political brinkmanship that once nearly crippled the economy and almost plunged the U.S. government into default.
The prospect for a catastrophe rose dramatically after conservatives brokered a deal with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that clinched his election as the speaker of the House early Saturday. To put an end to days of raucous debate, party lawmakers said they agreed to drive a hard line in upcoming budget talks, including by demanding potentially significant changes to Social Security and Medicare.
“That is the biggest challenge in this Congress,” said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), a top ally to McCarthy, shortly after the speaker vote, adding that “debt, deficit and the fiscal house – that is a major priority for House Republicans.”
In the hours before the 15th and final speaker vote, Republicans sketched out the early contours of what they might pursue over the next year – slashing spending by billions of dollars, largely targeting federal health, education, labor and other domestic agencies that Democrats say are already underfunded.
Some GOP lawmakers even signaled they would insist on these reductions — along with other, more structural changes to federal entitlement programs — in exchange for voting to lift the debt ceiling.
That cap is the statutory limit on how much the
U.S. government can borrow to pay its existing bills, and lawmakers must act to raise or suspend it — otherwise the country will default, which many experts fear would set off a global fiscal calamity.
“Make no mistake, the debt ceiling issue in and of itself is intended to leverage better policies moving forward as it relates to spending,” said Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), who is vying to lead the top tax-focused committee in the House. “I think we shouldn’t shy away from that.”
The new threats raised the prospect of a political confrontation with skyhigh stakes, since a misstep could trigger financial havoc and a full-fledged recession. More than a decade ago, the mere possibility that the U.S. might not be able to pay its bills rattled markets worldwide, while costing American taxpayers more than $1 billion.
Citing those past standoffs, many Democrats this week issued their own ultimatums: They said they are willing to discuss federal spending with their newly empowered GOP counterparts, but they would not haggle over the debt ceiling.
“I think the president has been very clear and will continue to be clear: There’s no negotiating over whether or not the United States pays its bills on time,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the chamber’s appropriations committee.
“That is an obligation every member needs to take seriously,” he continued. “We will repeat, again and again, there is a line in the sand here, and we’re not going to give the extreme Republicans their wish list in exchange for them simply allowing the country to pay its bills on time.”
McCarthy’s election in the early hours of Saturday morning nonetheless emboldened
House Republicans, having overcome their fierce ideological divides — at least for the moment. Speaking to reporters after clinching the outcome, McCarthy said the political discord that characterized the debate over the past week had been instructive, helping the party “build the trust with one another” needed to govern.
It will fall now to McCarthy to keep Republicans united in a chamber where the GOP’s majority is razor thin — and, as his rocky rise demonstrated, conservatives wield immense power. Many of these lawmakers expect McCarthy to deliver on a vast array of promises, including his commitment to cut spending and extract other policy concessions from a Democrat-led Senate and the White House. If he does not, the right-leaning bloc has the power to try to remove McCarthy as speaker.
Republicans must grapple with at least two key fiscal deadlines this year. They have to raise the debt ceiling before the government breaches the borrowing cap, which could occur as soon as this summer, according to Shai Akabas, the director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, noting that the exact date will depend on upcoming federal indicators.
But lawmakers must also work to fund federal agencies and programs before the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. Democrats and Republicans adopted the current $1.7 trillion spending measure, known in legislative parlance as an omnibus, in the waning hours of 2022 — and a failure to replace it would shutter Washington in the fall.
While the issues are technically separate, Republicans have signaled early interest in fusing them together, raising the stakes in the event of congressional inaction. “We believe there ought to be specific, concrete limits on spending, attached to a debt ceiling increase,” stressed Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who had opposed McCarthy as speaker until he secured a number of concessions.
Entering those fights, some Republicans have pledged to pare back federal spending at least to levels adopted in the 2022 fiscal year, which would amount to billions of dollars in cuts compared with current expenditures. Others in the party said they also intend to produce a budget blueprint that balances the federal ledger – which last ran a $1.38 trillion deficit – over the next decade.
Democrats this week have decried the approach: Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top party lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee, blasted it as a “backroom deal” that “kills the 2024 government funding process before it has even started, all but guaranteeing a shutdown.”
McCarthy has not shared in detail the extent of the promises he made with conservatives in pursuit of the speaker’s gavel; his office did not respond Saturday to a request for comment. But many GOP lawmakers this week have sounded increasingly bullish about their new sense of purpose in trying to drive a hard spending bargain with the White House.
“You can’t have a balanced budget unless you start cutting,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), another member of the House Freedom Caucus, promising to “look at every dollar.”
RICHMOND, VA.
A Virginia teacher who was critically injured when she was was shot by a 6-year-old student in Newport News is showing signs of improvement as authorities struggle to understand how a child so young could be involved in a school shooting, the city’s mayor said Saturday.
Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones said the condition of the teacher, a woman in her 30s, is “trending in a positive direction” as she remains hospitalized. Police Chief Steve Drew met with the teacher and her family Saturday morning. “She has improved and is currently listed in stable condition,” police said in a news release.
The boy shot and wounded the teacher with a handgun in a first-grade classroom on Friday at Richneck Elementary School, according to authorities. Drew said the shooting was not accidental and was part of an altercation. No students were injured.
Police on Saturday declined to describe what led to the altercation or any other details about what happened in the classroom, citing the
CAPE CANAVERAL
A 38-year-old retired NASA satellite is about to fall from the sky.
NASA said Friday the chance of wreckage falling on anybody is “very low.” Most of the 5,400-pound (2,450-kilogram) satellite will burn up upon reentry, according to NASA. But some pieces are expected to survive.
The space agency put the odds of injury from falling debris at about 1-in-9,400.
The science satellite is expected to come down Sunday night, give or take 17 hours, according to the Defense Department.
The California-based Aerospace Corp., however is targeting Monday morning, give or take 13 hours, along a track passing over Africa, Asia the Middle East and the westernmost areas of North and South America.
ROME
Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oils were the highest on record last year even after falling for nine months in a row, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said, as Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors drove up inflation and worsened hunger worldwide.
The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly traded food commodities, dipped by 1.9% in December from a month earlier, the Romebased organization said Friday. For the whole year, it averaged 143.7 points, more than 14% above the 2021 average, which also saw large increases.
The December decline was led by a drop in the price of vegetable oils amid shrinking import demand, expectations of increased soy oil production in South America and lower crude oil prices. Grain and meat were also down, while dairy and ongoing investigation.
Jones also declined to reveal details of the shooting, or say how the boy got access to the gun or who owns the weapon.
“This is a red flag for the country,” Jones said.
“I do think that after this event, there is going to be a nationwide discussion on how these sorts of things can be prevented.”
Virginia law does not allow 6-year-olds to be tried as adults. In addition, a 6-year-old is too young to be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty.
A juvenile judge would have authority, though, to revoke a parent’s custody and place a child under the purview of the Department of Social Services.
Jones would not say where the boy is being held.
“We are ensuring he has all the services that he currently needs right now,” Jones said.
Experts who study gun violence said the shooting represents an extremely rare occurrence of a young child bringing a gun into school and wounding a teacher.
The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, known as ERBS, was launched in 1984 aboard space shuttle Challenger. Although its expected working lifetime was two years, the satellite kept making ozone and other atmospheric measurements until its retirement in 2005. The satellite studied how Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the sun.
The satellite got a special sendoff from Challenger. America’s first woman in space, Sally Ride, released the satellite into orbit using the shuttle’s robot arm. That same mission also featured the first spacewalk by a U.S. woman: Kathryn Sullivan. It was the first time two female astronauts flew in space together.
It was the second and final spaceflight for Ride, who died in 2012. sugar rose slightly.
“Calmer food commodity prices are welcome after two very volatile years,” FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said in a prepared statement.
“It is important to remain vigilant and keep a strong focus on mitigating global food insecurity given that world food prices remain at elevated levels, with many staples near record highs, and with prices of rice increasing, and still many risks associated with future supplies.”
Last year, the U.N. organization’s Food Price Index hit the highest level since its records began in 1961, according to FAO data.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February exacerbated a food crisis because the two countries were leading global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other products, especially to nations in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia that were already struggling with hunger.