Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Debt package rolls toward passage
President optimistic vote on deal to go as planned in House
WASHINGTON — The debt ceiling and budget cuts package that would avert a federal default headed toward House passage late Wednesday as President
Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans against fierce conservative blowback and progressive dissent.
The hard-fought compromise pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — devastating economic upheaval — if Congress failed to act. Tensions rose when Republican support lagged on a procedural vote in the afternoon, but the package ultimately sailed ahead once Democrats unleashed their votes in a show of bipartisan support.
As debate began, Biden expressed optimism that the agreement he negotiated with McCarthy would pass the chamber and avoid an economically disastrous default on America’s debts.
“I think things are going as planned,” he told reporters.
Biden later departed Washington for Colorado, where he is scheduled to deliver the commencement address Thursday at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
“God willing by the time I land, Congress will have acted, the House will have acted, and we’ll be one step closer,” he said.
Biden sent top White House officials to the Capitol to shore up backing.
McCarthy worked to sell skeptical fellow Republicans, even fending off challenges to his leadership, in the rush to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.
“Everybody has a right to their own opinion, but on history, I’d want to be here with this bill today,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said as he arrived at the Capitol.
Despite disappointment from right-flank Republicans that the compromise falls well short of the spending cuts they demanded, McCarthy insisted he would have the votes needed by the evening roll call.
He characterized the package as “just a small step” toward getting the U.S. debt load under control, and announced he would next be working to set up a bipartisan commission to more deeply address budget imbalances.
“Today, America is going to win,” he said.
Quick approval by the House and later in the week by the Senate would ensure government checks will continue to go out to Social Security recipients, veterans and others and would
prevent financial upheaval at home and abroad.
In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Republican leader Mitch McConnell are working for passage by week’s end.
Monday is when the Treasury has said the U.S. would run short of money to pay its debts, risking an economically dangerous default.
The package leaves few lawmakers in the House fully satisfied, but Biden and McCarthy were counting on support from the political center, a rarity in divided Washington, testing the leadership of the Democratic president and the Republican speaker.
Overall, the 99-page bill restricts spending for the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 and changes policies, including new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas line that many Democrats oppose.
The package bolsters funds for defense and veterans.
Raising the nation’s debt limit, now $31 trillion, ensures the Treasury can borrow to pay already incurred U.S. debts.
For days McCarthy has worked to build support among skeptic Republicans.
For more than two hours late Tuesday as aides wheeled in pizza at the Capitol, he walked Republicans through the details, fielded questions and encouraged them not to lose sight of the bill’s budget savings.
The speaker faced a sometimes tough crowd.
Leaders of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus spent the day lambasting the compromise as falling well short of the needed spending cuts, and they vowed to try to halt passage.
“This deal fails, fails completely,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said, flanked by others outside the Capitol. “We will do everything in our power to stop it.”
A much larger conservative faction, the Republican Study Committee, declined to take a position.
Even rank-and-file centrist conservatives were unsure, leaving McCarthy hunting for votes.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said after the “healthy debate” she was still a no.
Ominously, the conservatives warned of possibly trying to oust McCarthy over the compromise.
“There’s going to be a reckoning,” said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.
Biden was speaking directly to lawmakers, making calls from the White House.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the spending restrictions in the package would reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion over the decade, a top goal for the Republicans trying to curb the debt load.
In a surprise that could erode Republicans’ support, however, the CBO said their drive to impose work requirements on older Americans receiving food stamps would end up boosting spending by $2.1 billion over the time period. That’s because the final deal exempts veterans and homeless people, expanding the food stamp rolls by 78,000 people monthly, the CBO said.
Liberal Democrats decried the new work requirements for older Americans, those age 50-54, in the food aid program.
On Wall Street, stock prices were down.