WASHINGTON – The hard wing of the US Republican Party on Tuesday reinforced its offensive against the bill on the debt ceiling reached this weekend and whose vote is scheduled for Wednesday in the House of Representatives.
“I want to be very clear. No Republican should vote for this deal. We are working hard to make sure it stops,” Conservative lawmaker Chip Roy, one of those who has spoken out the most against the pact, told a press conference.
The members of the Freedom Caucus, who are part of the most right-wing Republican side, called on the media to mobilize their ranks against this regulation that seeks to prevent non-payment of sovereign debt before June 5, the date on which the Department of Treasury calculates that the country will exhaust its reserves.
If approved, the compromise reached will raise the debt ceiling for the next two years, that is, until after the next presidential elections.
The proposal maintains non-defense spending in 2024 and increases it by only 1% in 2025, and although the cuts will not affect health programs or social security, some social programs will be affected, such as Assistance Temporary for Families in Need.
“I had no idea that there was going to be a plan as ephemeral and pestilential as this. I am going to vote no and I urge my colleagues to vote no,” added Andy Biggs, who last week introduced a bill that advocated taking unspent earmarked funds, such as covid relief, to delay the date of probable default and be able to continue negotiating.
The Lower House, with a conservative majority, had already given its approval on April 26 to a bill to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for extensive cuts in public spending. “Negotiating does not mean completely ignoring what we had approved,” Congressman Ralph Norman also criticized.
Lawmaker Lauren Boebert agreed that that chamber did its job and that neither the president, Joe Biden, nor the Senate, under Democratic control, did their part. “If every Republican voted according to what was defended in his campaign, he would vote tomorrow against that bad agreement,” she said.
The vote in the Lower House depends first on its Rules Committee, which meets this Tuesday, authorizing it to continue its parliamentary process. It is made up of four Democratic legislators and nine Republicans, including three of the staunchest conservatives: Roy, Norman and Tom Massie.
“The agreement is a failure and that is why we will completely oppose it and do everything in our power to stop it,” Scott Perry, president of the Freedom Caucus, also warned the press.
On the Democratic side, however, some of its members have also firmly shown their opposition or reluctance in this regard.
One of them, Danny Davis, stressed this Tuesday that the next 24 hours “will be decisive” and that he himself will vote based on the clarifications he can get during this time: “I am concerned about meeting the needs of disadvantaged people” he added at another press conference.
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