Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday came out in support of the debt ceiling agreement between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
As the House Rules Committee likely will move a debt ceiling bill forward Tuesday afternoon for a full House vote Wednesday evening, the proposed agreement, which includes the negotiated budget components, earned the support of Schumer.
“I support the bipartisan agreement that President Biden has produced with Speaker McCarthy,” he told reporters. “Avoiding default is an absolute imperative.”
Schumer said he plans to move the bill quickly through the Senate upon House passage.
“Senators must be prepared to act with urgency” to pass the bill “before the June 5 deadline,” because it “protects key investments that are essential for growing our economy.”
“I’ll make sure the Senate moves quickly,” he said, calling the legislation a “responsible, prudent, and very necessary way forward.”
Schumer’s Republican colleague also supported the agreement between McCarthy and Biden. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) praised McCarthy for correcting the fiscal direction of the nation towards “sanity.”
“The American people got a lot more progress toward fiscal sanity,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans deserve our thanks.”
“House Republicans’ unity forced President Biden to do his job,” he added.
The agreement, with the support of Biden, Schumer, McConnell, McCarthy, and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) appears to have enough Democrat and Republican votes to pass the House.
“I’m not sure what in the bill people are concerned about,” McCarthy told reporters. “Since we took the majority, I wanted to change things in Washington. And Nancy [Pelosi] as Speaker had broken this place. People could not read the bills. This is 99 pages —15 of them of just rescinding the wasteful Washington spending.”
Donalds: So who here thinks it's cool to cut $12 billion in exchange for $4 trillion? I don't think that's cool at all. pic.twitter.com/L9oCzAt7jo
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 30, 2023
Jeffries also championed the legislation as a bipartisan accomplishment during divided government.
“From the very beginning, House Democrats, along with Senate Democrats, and President Biden made clear the only way to avoid a catastrophic default is to find a bipartisan solution moving forward that allows for common ground to be found,” Jeffries told reporters. “I’m thankful that President Biden has been able to thread that needle and present a resolution that both avoids a default and protects incredibly important Democratic interests.”
The legislation is opposed by some House Freedom Caucus members and other Republicans. “It’s funny that the White House’s talking points are very cheery,” Rep. Byron Donald (R-FL) during a Tuesday press conference.
“No one sent us here to borrow an additional $4 trillion to get absolutely nothing in return,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) claimed. “There’s a reason our Democrat colleagues support this. There’s a reason that Mitt Romney supports this. There’s a reason that Bill Kristol supports this.”
“After reading the bill, twice, I’m voting NO on the debt ceiling debacle because playing the DC game isn’t worth selling out our kids and grandkids,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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