US debt ceiling: Republican hard-right vows to sink deal hours before vote expected
Members of the hard-right House freedom caucus have attacked the proposed spending cuts in the debt ceiling bill as woefully inadequate, and vowed to oppose the legislation when it hits the floor.
“We had the time to act, and this deal fails – fails completely,” Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, chair of the freedom caucus, said on Tuesday. “We will do everything in our power to stop it and end it now.”
The House is expected to hold a final vote on the bill on Wednesday, while other members of the freedom caucus continue to denounce the compromise brokered by the Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and President Joe Biden over the weekend.
The compromise bill, formally named the Fiscal Responsibility Act, would raise the debt ceiling until 2025, allowing the US to avoid a default that could reap devastating consequences on the American economy. The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has warned that the federal government will be unable to pay its bills starting on 5 June unless Congress takes action.
In addition to the debt ceiling increase, the bill includes government spending cuts and expanded work requirements demanded by McCarthy.
“There has been a lot of hard work and a lot of late nights that have gone into changing the spending trajectory in this town,” Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday night. “For once in a long, long time, Washington is actually going to spend less money next year than it is this year, and that’s a reform that all of us can support.”
Republicans on the House rules committee voted late on Tuesday to advance the bill, clearing the way for a final vote on Wednesday.
During that hearing, two Freedom Caucus members who sit on the panel, Chip Roy of
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