WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the weekend President Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R- CA) reached an agreement on the debt ceiling. The legislation would raise the government debt ceiling and set spending limits for federal dollars. The bill faced it’s first major hurdle: the House Rules Committee.
Before the hearing began, a handful of hard-right republicans who are on the committee are pushing back on this legislation. They argue that the plan doesn’t have enough spending cuts and are threatening to use their power on this Rules Committee to try to keep it from reaching the House floor.
On the Committee, the republicans outnumber the democrats nine to four. If the hard-right republicans decide to push back on this legislation, the other republicans might turn to the democrats to push this legislation through. Some political analysts said if the Speaker needs to turn to the democrats to get this legislation through, he could look weak and make him vulnerable if there is an effort to take him off the Speaker role. For the most part, members in the Rules Committee are pointing the finger at each other. Accusing the other side of not taking this seriously.
If the Committee moves forward on this legislation, we expect the House to vote on this as early as Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said congress has to pass the debt ceiling legislation and get the president to sign it before June fifth or else we could default, which would likely lead to severe economic consequences.
