Debt ceiling vote Kevin McCarthy's biggest victory yet

Late Wednesday afternoon, the House passed a debt ceiling bill, forcing Democrats to come up with a serious plan. The passage of the bill is considered Speaker McCarthy's biggest victory since becoming the Speaker. Of course, NPR had to diminish the accomplishment, titling their article "House Republicans overcome internal divisions to pass debt ceiling bill."

The article opens by saying "After overcoming internal divisions, the Republican-led House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that links lifting the country's debt ceiling with spending cuts and a series of GOP policy changes." Unlike Democrats, who follow the orders of their leader without questioning, Republicans are often a contentious bunch. They don't just follow orders. It's fairly frequent that people like Jim Jordan, Chip Roy and Thomas Massie don't automatically say yes.

Sausage-Making

If you're wondering how this sausage got made, it went like this "The bill's passage comes after Republican leaders met overnight to address concerns from several GOP members, including eliminating the plan's original aim to repeal tax credits for ethanol productions. That provision was ultimately removed."

While there was always a chance this wouldn't come together, the reality is that Speaker McCarthy stayed in touch with his conference. He listened to their concerns. As the House session continues, I expect House Republicans get more accomplished that the expectation gurus predicted.

McCarthy and his top vote counter, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., both worked into Wednesday to secure the votes to pass the Limit, Save and Grow Act of 2023. The speaker argued changes to the plan were minor.

After the vote, a confident, sometimes defiant McCarthy held a press conference:

Then GOP House leadership issued this statement:

House Republicans just delivered a plan that will address the country’s debt crisis. Our conference came together to pass the only plan in Washington that will tackle the debt ceiling, stop excessive federal spending and inflation, and put our country back on track for sustained economic growth.

Today’s vote also sends a clear message to President Biden – continuing to ignore the problem is not an option. The President must come to the table to negotiate.

The Limit, Save, Grow Act is a commonsense approach to return to fiscal sanity by putting an end to Democrats’ trillion-dollar spending sprees while ensuring Veterans, Medicare, and Social Security programs are strengthened and preserved. It will save taxpayers trillions of dollars by reclaiming unused Covid funds, stopping Biden’s student loan giveaway to the wealthy, and defunding his army of IRS agents. At the same time, it will promote a strengthened workforce to help lift more people out of poverty.

The House GOP plan is more than sensible. It's the right thing to do. Democrats went on multiple trillion-dollar spending sprees. Unfortunately, Mitch McConnell and some other establishment Republicans helped with part of that spending spree. Joe Biden, coupled with House and Senate Democrats, though, were the idiots that proposed spending trillions of dollars.

The Limit, Save, Grow Act resets the budget baseline to FY2022's level. Further, it would limit nonmilitary discrectionary spending growth to 1% per year. Other lunatic Democrats like AOC, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who thinks that's wrong after seeing what the Democrats' spending sprees did to inflation?

Yesterday's passage of the GOP's Limit, Save, Grow Act is a big victory for Speaker McCarthy. It's also a major victory for the American people. Yesterday, House Republicans showed that they're fiscally responsible. That can't be said for Joe Biden or Senate Democrats.