McCarthy faces GOP pushback over debt deal

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing an outcry from members of his Republican Party after he struck a deal with President Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, McCarthy and Biden, a Democrat, agreed on a two-year deal that would raise the United States' $31.4 trillion debt ceiling by $4 trillion.

The deal will still have to be approved by the US Congress before the debt-default deadline on Monday.

Despite reaching the current debt limit in January, discussions between the White House and Congressional leaders only began on May 9.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, said the deal does not do enough to change the country's fiscal trajectory.

"Prior to this deal our country was careening toward bankruptcy. And after this deal, our country will still be careening toward bankruptcy," he said on Fox News.

"The deal green-lights $4 trillion in new debt over the next year and a half, locks in inflated levels of spending from COVID, and keeps 98 percent of the Biden IRS expansion."

McCarthy had vowed to block the $80 billion White House spending to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service tax agents. However, the number agreed to in the deal was a small reduction to $78.1 billion.

"So there will be 85,260 more IRS agents rather than 87,000 to eat you alive. Big win," tweeted Representative Dan Bishop, a North Carolina Republican.

The deal needs only a simple majority to pass, so even if several Republicans vote against it, it is likely to clear Congress before Monday, the day the Treasury Department said the US would run out of money to pay its bills.

"This thing will absolutely pass. There's no question about that," said Republican Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, who said he had talked to dozens of fellow lawmakers.

Biden said he had been working the phones to ensure the vote passes. "It feels good. We'll see when the vote starts," he told reporters.

In a Twitter post on Sunday heralding the agreement, McCarthy received almost a uniformly negative response, with most saying he "caved" in.

"President Biden claimed he'd never negotiate," the Republican speaker wrote. " (Senate Majority) Leader (Charles) Schumer insisted there'd be a 'clean' debt increase. They were wrong. Republicans fought to spend less, block Biden's new tax proposals, claw back unspent COVID money, and fully fund our veterans and defense priorities."

Overall, the 99-page bill is a trade-off that would impose some spending reductions for the next two years along with a suspension of the debt limit into January 2025, pushing the volatile political issue past the next presidential election. Raising the debt limit would allow Treasury to continue borrowing to pay the country's already incurred bills.

Key test

A key test would come on Tuesday afternoon when the House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the package and vote on sending it to the full House for a vote expected on Wednesday. Although the panel is normally closely aligned with House leadership, McCarthy appointed some conservatives in exchange for support of him becoming the speaker.

One of those conservatives, Representative Chip Roy of Texas, said on Monday he did not support the bill.

"It's not a good deal," Roy wrote on Twitter. "Some $4 trillion in debt for — at best — a two-year spending freeze and no serious substantive policy reforms."

In the Senate, Republican Mike Lee of Utah also came out against the bill, which could point to a tight vote there, where any member has the power to delay action for days.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said he expects support from his side of the aisle, though many on his party's progressive left may vote "no" as well.

But making any changes to the package at this stage seems highly unlikely with so little time to spare. Congress and the White House are racing to meet the Monday deadline now less than a week away. That is when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the US would run short of cash and face an unprecedented debt default without action.

Agencies contributed to this story.