Debt limit vote draws bipartisan support, opposition from Ga. lawmakers
Georgia’s U.S. House delegation did not split along the usual party lines over controversial legislation raising the federal debt limit.
Ten House members from Georgia — including six of the delegation’s 10 Republicans — voted last Wednesday in favor of an agreement hammered out by President Joe Biden and GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to increase the debt limit for an additional two years in exchange for cuts in federal spending.
On the other hand, Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams of Atlanta bucked House Democratic leadership and the White House by voting against the bill, joining three Georgia
Republicans in voting “no.”
The House vote came as the nation faced a deadline of June 5 for raising the debt limit to avoid the U.S. government going into default for the first time in the nation’s history, an event economists warn would trigger a recession.
The U.S. Senate passed the bill the following day with Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock joining 61 of their colleagues from both sides of the aisle to give the legislation final passage.
To reach a deal with McCarthy, Biden agreed to keep non-defense spending relatively flat during the next fiscal year and increase it by just 1% in fiscal 2025.
“House Republicans held the American people hostage so they could inflict cruel cuts,” Williams said, following the vote. “I could not vote for an agreement that puts my constituents on the chopping block.”
But Democratic Reps. Hank Johnson of Stone Mountain, Sanford Bishop of Albany, David Scott of Atlanta, and Lucy McBath of Marietta voted for the deal.
“I congratulate [the president] for a shrewdly negotiated debt ceiling bill that protects our economy, protects against MAGA hostage taking for two years, and protects Americans from cruel MAGA social safety net cuts,” Johnson said.
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, went against many of her conservative Republican colleagues and sided with McCarthy in voting for the bill.