Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., who went back and forth on supporting McCarthy for speaker, said she is also undecided, arguing that if her party wants to target the poor, it should also “challenge the rich monopolists.”
Failure to pass a law with Democrats could spark a global economic meltdown. But making the necessary compromises could put McCarthy’s job in the crosshairs — again — with the far-right, as any one member can force a House vote to overthrow the speaker.
The bill will be on the floor as early as Wednesday.
“I look at this vote more as a test of member confidence in him,” said Brendan Buck, a former adviser to former Republican Speaker Paul Ryan. “Any final deal will look nothing like this bill, and so it speaks more to how strong his standing will be when they ultimately need to swallow very modest wins.”
Buck predicted that the White House would find it “untenable” not to negotiate on the debt limit, whether or not McCarthy’s bill passes. “Now comes the hard part, but the fact he’s not facing a huge revolt already is a good sign for the survivability of the eventual deal.”
Meanwhile, centrist or swing-district Republicans, like Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., also are withholding support. Mace said she is leaning no because the bill doesn’t balance the budget and could harm green energy businesses in her state.
Aiming to calm the fears of politically endangered Republicans, the American Action Network, a McCarthy-aligned group, commissioned a poll in 87 battleground districts that Biden won narrowly and found support for “cutting government spending” alongside a debt limit increase. The survey, conducted by American Viewpoint, was circulated around Washington last week.
And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted GOP members over the debt limit bill’s repeal of clean energy grants and funding. The committee cited a report showing that the district of far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who barely won re-election in 2022, has benefited from wind energy assistance in the Democrats’ law. Committee spokesman Tommy Garcia accused Boebert of “reckless behavior” and claimed the bill would “gut hundreds of jobs in Colorado.”
Some Republicans sympathize with McCarthy’s challenge.
“I think everybody knows he’s doing the best he can given the cards he’s been dealt,” said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., a McCarthy ally and a senior appropriator, citing the razor-thin GOP majority and the fact that Democrats control the White House and Senate.
To secure the gavel, McCarthy had to agree to a Freedom Caucus demand that deep spending cuts be tied to any hike in the debt ceiling. He also agreed to another crucial demand: that he reinstate a House rule in which a single lawmaker can force a vote to oust the sitting speaker at any time.
At least for now, no one is publicly saying that McCarthy’s speakership is at risk if he fails to pass his debt package. But Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., a former Budget Committee chair who backs the GOP package, paused for several seconds and stumbled over his answer when asked on CBS News if McCarthy’s speakership was “safe” if he fails to deliver any spending cuts in his debt talks with Biden.
“Uh, you know, it’s a hard question to answer,” Womack said, “because we have the ability to do a motion to vacate with one member; we have a four-seat majority.”
The debt debate comes against the backdrop of some internal GOP drama that recently spilled out into the open. The New York Times reported that McCarthy had privately criticized current Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and his top deputy, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who has long been seen as a potential rival. McCarthy’s comments came after Arrington quietly put out feelers during the speaker fight to see if colleagues would back Scalise for the job instead, the Times reported.
