House Speaker Kevin McCarthy took a victory lap immediately after the House passed the debt ceiling deal with a big bipartisan showing.
“I have been thinking about this day since before my vote for speaker because I knew the debt ceiling was coming. I wanted to make history,” a beaming McCarthy said.
Expressing gratitude towards his negotiating team, Representatives Garret Graves and Patrick McHenry, the Speaker acknowledged their dedicated involvement in the endeavor for over a month. However, when questioned about his rapport with President Joe Biden following the process, he jokingly lamented, “I haven’t received an invitation for dinner or lunch from him yet.”
In response, McHenry conveyed his appreciation for being a part of the team, while Graves emphasized that contrary to expectations of a dysfunctional Congress, the Speaker was effectively steering it towards a transformative era.
The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday night to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025. The final vote tally was 314-117 with 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats voting against the bill.
The bill now awaits a vote in the US Senate later this week, after which President Joe Biden can sign it into law. The government is projected to reach its borrowing limit on June 5, leaving little room for error as lawmakers strive to prevent a default on the $31.4tn (£25tn) debt, which underpins the global financial system.
Kevin McCarthy’s Strategic Approach and Challenges Within the Republican Party
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy employed a strategic approach by passing a bill that raised the debt limit but included conservative priorities, which pushed President Biden and hesitant Democrats to negotiate. Eventually, McCarthy reached a more modest debt deal with the president, trimming the growth in federal spending and imposing new conditions on aid for low-income Americans. Some hard-line conservatives initially expressed dissatisfaction, even suggesting they would replace McCarthy as Speaker. However, by Wednesday, their opposition had dwindled, and a majority of Republicans supported McCarthy’s deal, revealing a lack of widespread support for the hard-liners’ position.