This is certainly an interesting turn of events. Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden hammered out the basic parameters of the debt ceiling deal, which has been written about here and elsewhere. The deal is a compromise. Republicans wanted big cuts, Democrats wanted none, the deal falls somewhere in between — but the virtues of it absolutely favor the Democrats. Simply, nobody has to deal with this nonsense again until 2025 and with any luck the White House will still be in Democratic hands.

So will the bill now pass? That’s the gigantic question here. The New York Times sketches out two scenarios. The worse case scenario is going to be devastating to the right-wing crazies if they tank this deal. I don’t think that will happen. Marge Greene isn’t making any rebellious noises. Lauren Boebert is, but she’s also the one who got reelected by five hundred votes so heavy wave making is not in her best interests. The others will hem and haw but are they willing to wear the face of having bankrupted the country and triggered a global recession? I think not.

McCarthy has tried to avoid a mutiny by involving some of the most conservative members in debt limit talks and putting them in leadership positions. But there is no guarantee they stick with him — especially if they believe he went too far in his concessions to the White House.

There are two leading scenarios. In one, far-right Republicans vote against the deal but let it pass, and McCarthy secures the needed votes from Democratic lawmakers willing to back his compromise legislation with Biden. That result would be a vindication for McCarthy’s approach to the speakership: By bringing his most conservative members into the fold, he’ll have stopped them from taking more drastic action.

In the other scenario, far-right Republicans essentially tank the agreement. They could call a vote on whether to oust McCarthy as speaker and, because House Republicans have such a narrow majority, McCarthy could lose. (Remember: It took McCarthy 15 ballots to win the speakership in the first place.)

Conservative Republicans might stop short of such a step to avoid being blamed for the aftermath, said my colleague Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent. If the federal government defaults on its debts and economic catastrophe follows, it will be clear that the hard right allowed this to happen by blocking a deal that a majority of lawmakers were ready to pass.

With that scenario in mind, conservative Republicans may let a deal go through even as they vote against it.

 

Here’s the right-wing blow back.

McCarthy promised a 72-hour time in which the bill could be read before voting on it. Voting could begin Tuesday. The right-wing crazies may be huffing and puffing and threatening to blow the House down, and the country along with it, but that is not the way to go and they know it.

That said, it’s not over until it’s over.

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Bobo, I have a very hard time believing anyone did any door-to-door canvassing for you. More to the point, you have yet to do any work for your constituents. You’ve been a shit stain taking up space in the house which, hard as it likely is for you to believe, not working.

    What a moronic twat.

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  2. In my 70 years of life (when turning 18 and eligible to vote) I have NEVER seen such division, hatred and disgust in this Republican party. I am a staunch “D” but when Trump was running, I changed my party affiliation to “R” thinking he might make a good President, but that didn’t last long after watching what Trump was doing to our County and our Democracy. It sickens me to no end how people can still support and want to vote for Trump especially after the January 6th insurrection. He’s guilty as hell to be the initiator and instigator of this terrible, terrible day and there are people who still want him as the POTUS again??? No way, not me!!! I will work very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen to our great USA… God help us all if he does!

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    • You were a “staunch ‘D'” but “when Trump was running,” you changed to “‘R’ thinking he might make a good President.”

      I’m sorry but what the f*** were you taking at that time? Were you COMPLETELY ignoring Trump’s racism and xenophobia and misogyny and pettiness (as evidenced by the childish–if only–nicknames he gave his opponents) throughout the entire time?

      I’ve seen exactly ONE Republican candidate in the last 40+ years that I’ve been eligible to vote that I would’ve EVER considered voting for over the Democrat, and that was Elizabeth Dole. She, at least, SEEMED to be willing to work with the “other side” on issues without being afraid to compromise without changing the goalposts mid-negotiations. (Her lone presidential bid didn’t really last long enough for any real chance for that impression to be proven accurate or not.)

      But Trump? No. No way in freaking hell should that man have made it through even one primary or caucus based on his actual merits. The man tapped into the absolute worst of the American experience, promising his mouth-breathing, troglodytic followers that they’d no longer have to accept people who didn’t look like them or who didn’t believe like them. That whole “Make America Great Again” was nothing less than “Make America Like the Fifties Again”: Where women stayed home and, if young enough, pregnant; where gays stayed in the closet; where Blacks and Latinos stayed in their subservient place; where all those groups accepted their second-class, or lower, status and grinned and bore it as they were spat on and insulted by “real” American men. (Of course, the tax rate wouldn’t go back to those days–no, mustn’t hurt the money men and their wallets. And to hell with the minimum wage–let companies pay what they want and the workers will take it or look for another job that pays just as poorly.)

      I’m glad you’ve “seen the light” but I hope you’ve forever sworn off whatever you were using in 2016.

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      • I know some folks who say they voted for Trump because he’s a good business man! When I point out how many businesses he’s bankrupted, they go blank. The guy is a con man and he conned millions of Americans into believing that he had the goods behind his “brand” when that was all he was good at – a brand. I firmly believe that no “staunch” democrat would EVER vote for him after watching him and hearing him during his campaign/nazi-style rallies.

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    • It sickens me that you think you were a staunch D but nonchalantley voted for Trump.
      Don’t expect me to upvote you for being a FOOL and a threat to our democracy.

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  3. The true crazies will size up the situation and if they have the votes they may bring forward a motion to vacate before the budget bill is introduced. I doubt they have the votes, so the bill will be tabled and voted on and passed. Then it’s off to the Senate and god help any Democratic senator (I’m looking at you Kyrsten) who votes against it.

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    • Kyrsten’s no longer a Democrat. She became an “independent” after her Democratic voting constituency railed against her constant attacking the Democratic Party leadership.

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