Democratic Leader Asked if McCarthy Will Lose Job Over Debt Ceiling Fight
Lawmakers will have to do "the right thing," despite "political inconvenience," Jeffries says
The leader of the House Democratic Caucus was asked if Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy might have to approach some Democrats to pass a bill to raise the federal debt ceiling, if McCarthy's current gambit of trying to force President Biden to accept deep cuts in federal spending in exchange for such a vote fails.
McCarthy this week pushed a bill through the House that links lifting the country's debt ceiling with spending cuts and a series of Republican policy changes.
That legislation passed by the slimmest of margins: 217 - 215, with several Republicans joining all Democrats to vote “no” to the bill.
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said that it has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre labeled the House bill a “ransom note” and said its spending cuts would be painful, if enacted.
Congress has voted to raise the debt limit dozens of times over the years, usually without exacting extraneous policy changes. That includes three times during the Trump administration.
The federal government hit that debt ceiling in January and the Treasury Department has been employing "extraordinary measures" since then to keep the government funded, but those will run out as early as June.
If Congress fails to approve the debt ceiling by then, that would trigger an economic meltdown across the country effecting Americans of all walks of life.
Biden has resisted any sort of political negotiations in exchange for a debt ceiling increase, insisting on a so-called “clean” debt-ceiling increase.
At his weekly press conference Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was asked if McCarthy might have to rely on Democratic votes to pass a last-minute debt-ceiling increase if the bid for negotiations with Biden fails — even if it causes McCarthy's fellow Republicans to remove him as speaker.
When he was elected speaker in January, McCarthy allowed a change to House rules which lets just a single House member call for a motion to “vacate the chair,” or remove McCarthy as speaker.
“Well, that’s probably a question that’s best asked, of Speaker McCarthy. At the end of the day, we are just going to have to do the right thing here, regardless of what political inconvenience may be presented,” Jeffries said. “That’s what all of us in the Congress are called upon to do, the right thing by the American people.
“And in this particular case, there is only one approach that is correct, which is to make sure that we avoid a default and that America pays its bills,” Jeffries added.
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