The Debt Ceiling Deal From Hell

Conservatives have long been suspicious of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). He is rightly viewed as a deal maker with little backbone who often sacrifices principles for expediency. This is why it took fifteen ballots for him to finally get elected as House Speaker. He was able to secure the position due to support from conservative stalwarts such as U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and President Donald Trump.

Unfortunately, his tenure as House Speaker has been about as disappointing as many conservatives feared. He has not kept the promises he made to the members of the Freedom Caucus to garner their support. 

For example, McCarthy promised to schedule a vote on congressional term limits. Unfortunately, no vote on the issue has been scheduled, even though congressional term limits have the support of 83% of the American people. Hard working Americans want term limits, but lifelong politicians like McCarthy and U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are not as enamored with the idea. 

While not fulfilling the promises he made to the Freedom Caucus, conservatives were still hopeful that McCarthy would stand firm in his debt ceiling negotiations with President Joe Biden. In fact, he has been sounding tough in his media appearances in recent weeks. Conservatives were demanding that McCarthy only agree to a deal that would hold the line on spending, reduce government overreach and restore some semblance of fiscal sanity to our country. 

Not surprisingly, the agreement that was announced over the weekend was undoubtedly a big win for Democrats. The leftists are certainly happy that almost all the extra 87,000 IRS agents funded by the ludicrously named Inflation Reduction Act will be retained in this deal.

U.S. Congressman Dan Bishop (R-NC) lamented that only $1.9 billion will be cut from the $80 billion that was appropriated for the IRS expansion. As Bishop sarcastically noted, “So there will be 85,260 more IRS agents rather than 87,000 to eat you alive. Big win.”

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This pitiful 2% cut in the IRS expansion will not stop the targeting of hard working middle class Americans. According to U.S. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-CO), “The people that will suffer are those who are middle class, who make just enough to file but not enough to have some rich attorney comb through their returns. That’s who Biden wants to screw over to make sure (Ukrainian President) Zelenskyy can get more and more money.”

Obviously, Boebert was very unhappy about the deal McCarthy struck with Biden. She tweeted, “Our base didn’t volunteer, door knock and fight so hard to get us the majority for this kind of compromise deal with Joe Biden. Our voters deserve better than this. We work for them. You can count me as a NO on this deal. We can do better.”

The deal extends the debt ceiling until January of 2025. In the view of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, McCarthy delivered “a total surrender” and a “total and complete sell out” that will “condemn the United States to decades of lost economic growth.” The deal will ensure at least another $4 to $5 trillion being added to the national debt before the next ceiling is reached. 

Bannon blasted McCarthy as showing “no leadership whatsoever.” Nonetheless, the House Speaker claimed that he kept telling the Democrats “No,” and he refused their requests repeatedly. He said, “There’s nothing that they asked that I…let in.”

Of course, such bravado is ridiculous because President Biden readily accepted the “compromise.” Biden said the deal protected “critical programs,” and his “key priorities and legislative accomplishments.”

Yet, Republicans were sent to Washington D.C. by millions of voters across our country to stop Biden and overturn his radical agenda, not to “protect” it. 

David Stockman, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration, blasted the deal as “a screaming disgrace.” He noted that the minor change to mandate work requirements for food stamp recipients until the age of fifty-four “amounts to 0.02% of the $49 trillion in 10-year entitlement costs that are otherwise left untouched.” 

Alas, the so-called “freeze” in non-defense discretionary spending at current levels is “56%” higher than “Big Spender Obama's FY 2016 budget.” Stockman tweeted, “If the GOP majority falls for this hideous ‘compromise,’ who needs the GOP?” 

Fortunately, there are some GOP conservatives who are opposing this agreement. U.S. Congressman Dan Clyde (R-GA) surveyed the deal and said he would give it a “hard pass.” Also, U.S. Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) criticized the agreement for maintaining “bloated” Democratic Party spending levels and their “wish list,” such as the “unreliable energy subsidies” from the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Other aspects of the deal are equally troubling. It includes $88 billion in additional spending for the Department of Defense. With the United States out of Afghanistan and with the Republicans supposedly focusing on “America First” issues, why is there a need for this huge increase in defense spending?

In an interview on Fox News, McCarthy admitted the deal “lets government grow, but at a slower rate.” Really, adding at least $4 trillion to the national debt does not seem like much of a “slower rate.” 

McCarthy boasted that the deal has the support of “95%” of the Republican House members. If that is the case, the GOP leadership has totally lost connection with the base of their party. 

The volunteers and small donors who worked non-stop to elect Republicans to Congress are not going to support a bill that adds massive amounts to the debt, does not deter the growth of the IRS and keeps all of Biden’s socialist “Green energy” priorities in place. 

As former Trump Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought tweeted, the deal “hands away all leverage” to President Biden “for the rest of his term.” This capitulation is unacceptable and must be opposed. 

Vought is 100% correct, “Conservatives should fight it with all their might.” In the coming days, the truly courageous fighters in Congress will be revealed.