(Trends Wide) — The leaders of America’s political parties are waging an urgent campaign Monday to convince Democrats and Republicans to support a compromise bill that would prevent the first national default in history, with each side claiming victory after talks. martónicas
Prospects for passage of the bill, based on the agreement reached between President Joe Biden and the speaker of the House of Representatives, the Republican Kevin McCarthy, grew this Sunday as many centrist Democrats fell in line and Republicans maintained confidence. that they could count on the support of the majority of their group in the House of Representatives in a crucial vote scheduled for this Wednesday.
In the crosshairs of both parties are those in the political center, whom the leaders are betting will swallow some provisions they disagree with to suspend the federal borrowing limit until January 1, 2025. —after the next presidential elections— and avoid default. The bill limits non-defense spending, temporarily extends work requirements for some food stamp recipients and restores some relief funds implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The release of the text of the bill on Sunday night marked a momentous moment for both Biden and McCarthy, whose political future could depend on their ability to pass the legislation while selling it as a victory for their respective parties.
This Sunday, from the White House, Biden described the agreement as crucial to avoid an economic disaster.
“It’s a really important step forward,” he said from the Roosevelt room. “It removes the threat of a catastrophic default, it protects our hard-won economic recovery, and the deal also represents a compromise, which means no one has gotten everything they wanted, but that’s the responsibility of governing.”
The president shrugged off concerns from some Democrats who fear he has given up too much in his negotiations with Republicans.
“They’ll realize I didn’t do it,” he said.
In a private call Sunday with House Democrats, Biden’s aides defended his deals with McCarthy and spelled out what they had prevented from being added to the bill, according to multiple sources. They claimed they had stopped Republicans from imposing even tougher labor requirements and had rejected attempts to repeal the Cut Inflation Act and gut the 2021 infrastructure bill signed by Biden.
After those briefings, many Democrats indicated they were willing to support the plan simply because there is no other viable option to avoid default, lawmakers told Trends Wide.
“It is not a victory, but it is much better [que] what could have happened had the default occurred,” a Senate Democrat told Trends Wide after an evening briefing.
Members of two major centrist groups — the Coalition of New Democrats and the Problem Solvers Caucus — are widely expected to support the plan, according to multiple sources. That’s roughly 100 Democrats, which could be enough to offset the losses for hard-righters furious over the McCarthy deal.
Several hardline members of the House Freedom Caucus have already strongly criticized the plan, vowing to try to block its passage.
The challenges for McCarthy to pass the debt ceiling
McCarthy has insisted to House Republicans that Democrats “got nothing” in negotiations, pushing for expanded spending limits and new food stamp work requirements as critical victories the Republican Party had been looking for a long time.
But, like Biden, McCarthy acknowledged that the deal required concessions on both sides.
“You don’t get everything that everybody wanted,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill on Sunday. “But, in a divided government, that’s where we end up. I think it’s a very positive bill.”
For McCarthy, the first big test will come this Tuesday in the House Rules Committee, a panel that must adopt a rule to allow the bill to pass a majority in the House. To win the presidency of the House of Representatives, McCarthy agreed to nominate three hardline conservatives: Representatives Ralph Norman of South Carolina; Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky to serve on the commission, which is a big concession since the powerful panel is typically made up of close allies of the leaders.
So far, Norman and Roy have been very critical of the debt ceiling deal, while Massie has remained quiet, waiting for the text of the bill to be released. If all three voted against the rule in committee, the bill would be void unless any Democrat voted for the rule.
McCarthy’s allies tried to downplay the Conservative revolt.
“When conservatives are said to be concerned, they’re actually the most colorful conservatives,” Rep. Dusty Johnson said on “State of the Union.”
What is needed to reach an agreement
The approval of the bill in the House of Representatives will not be the last step. The package must also go through the Senate, where a single senator could stall progress for several days. On Sunday, a handful of powerful Senate Republicans raised concerns about the deal’s defense spending during a Senate GOP conference call, a caucus source said.
But with the support of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and the expected backing of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, several Senate sources say there is a high probability that there will be 60 votes to break a filibuster attempt. The timing of final votes in the Senate could slide to Friday or the weekend.
— Trends Wide’s Manu Raju, Haley Talbot and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.
