In GOP-controlled House, the debt ceiling bill passes with mostly Democrat votes

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The U.S. House voted on Wednesday night to raise the debt ceiling — the amount that the U.S. Treasury can borrow to make ends meet in a government that is living far beyond its means.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act hammered out by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, passed the House 314 to 117, with more Democrat votes than Republican vote. Some 149 GOP voted for it, and 71 voted against it, saying it didn’t go far enough to rein in federal spending.

On the Democrat side, Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska stayed with the 165 Democrats voting for the bill.

The bill suspends the current debt limit of $31.4 trillion until after the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election, when 435 House seats and 33 of the 100 Senate seats will be on the ballot then.

Rep. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, was uncharitable toward the bill, calling it the ” “Biden-McCarthy Debt Expansion Act.”

“To those who thought this was a Republican bill, the numbers don’t lie: 165 Democrats voted for it, and only 149 Republicans joined them. Those voting against it included 71 heroic Republicans and only 46 Democrats,” he said.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 claws back $30 billion of unspent Covid-19 funds; completely fund veterans medical care, and ends the pause in the repayment of student loans in August. Non-defense spending is flat for one year and then goes up by 1% in 2025.

At a press conference after the bill’s passage, McCarthy praised it:

“Each week, we have stood up for the American public. Be it a strongest border security, be it a parents’ bill of rights so you can have a say in your kid’s education, be it ending the pandemic or standing up against those who are weak on crime to make our streets safer,” McCarthy said. “Tonight, I hope we proved it to you again that we put the citizens of America first, and we didn’t do it by taking the easy way. We didn’t do it by the ways that people did it in the past by just lifting it. We decided that you had to spend less, and we achieved that goal.”

The measure now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Bernie Sanders is a no, and Sen. Joe Manchin is a yes, because the bill funds a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.

The conservative group, American Heritage Action, disapproved of the bill.

“As a long-standing policy position, we have consistently called for dollar-for-dollar cuts and reforms commensurate with any debt ceiling increases. This bill does not do that. This bill suspends the debt ceiling until 2025, enabling President Biden and a divided Congress to generate an estimated $4 trillion in new federal debt,” the group wrote.

“This deal does not meet the moment, and it does not address the root problems that have led to nearly $32 trillion in national debt,” Heritage Action said. “As members of Congress continue the fight to rein in Washington’s spending addiction and prevent the country’s fiscal ruin, we remain committed to finding solutions to once and for all bend the spending curve down.”

19 COMMENTS

  1. Oh great, thank your uniparty rinos for increased inflation, more money laundered in Ukraine and 87,000 irs agents to come after the poor and middle class. This is the works of the DeSantis backers. Too bad McCarthy will now be removed from speaker of the house. FAFO, ask target and budlight how well it’s working for them.

    • Oh yeah, DeSantis has so much control over the national Budget. Trump cultists are off their meds.

      • Uniparty rinos like Karl rove and Paul Ryan are Ronnie’s handlers. Pull your head out, it’s starving for oxygen

    • DeSantis backers? Really? Just another deranged comment from a Trump cultist. Do yourself a favor and yell at a cloud like Homer Simpson’s dad.

  2. I have read little about this spending bill, which is what it is, but it might be a small step in the right direction with a divided legislature and an executive who doesn’t know what century it is let alone what day it is. We spend way too much. A slim majority in the House can’t push massive spending cuts, not that they would anyways…Republicans aren’t as complicit as Democrats in the overspending, but they aren’t far behind.

  3. Word is that McCarthy gave Jefferies “secret concessions to boost spending on Democratic districts in the form of ‘community project funding’ in exchange for their votes”. That would be after giving it all away in the budget. Only 71 R’s voted against this monetary bonfire.

    Most R’s are worse then D’s. At least the D’s say who they are and are comfortable wielding power. Most R’s are cowardly, weak, and two faced. Micheal Malice describes them as “progressives driving the speed limit.” They are worse then our enemies, as they try and call us friend. They are not our friends. At best they are scutaged vassals.

  4. We needed to get more from this bill but it’s a debt ceiling bill not an appropriations bill. This isn’t the end of the spending fight, it’s the beginning.

  5. Stupidity! Let the Biden administration take the full heat and responsibility for this debt NOW instead of kicking this can down the road to a most probable Republican administration.

  6. Just gonna mention that gold went from $36 an ounce to $1975 an ounce in the boomer’s lifetime. These federal reserve notes everyone needs to survive are debt obligations to the federal reserve. The people that own the federal reserve bank are private citizens. The federal government is borrowing debt notes from a non government bank to keep a perverse system going through borrowing debt and nothing else.

  7. That’s 1,740 new IRS agents, many armed, for every state, with 60 billion in funding. Sounds like they want a totalitarian dictatorship to me.

  8. This bill will ensure that high inflation will be with us for the next generation. You may have enjoyed the past 20 years of low-interest home mortgages, but not any longer! Your teenage kids will never be able to afford a home of their own. Be sure to thank Mary Peltola if you see her. She voted for it, along with most Democrats.

  9. “Most” is a bit of an exaggeration when there are 435 possible votes and you can only muster a six vote split

  10. The Republican Party is a useless relic of the past. It has no purpose in modern politics.

  11. We need a new party of what’s right. Remember all the names who voted yes when the time comes.

  12. I doubt anyone will ever see Mary Peltola to thank her. She has been peeking out from under Nancy Pelosi’s dress ever since we sent her to DC.

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