House Republicans pass debt ceiling bill after McCarthy concessions

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) mustered just enough votes Wednesday to pass the House GOP’s proposal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit after several last-minute changes to appease Republican holdouts. 

The GOP proposal, which passed 217-215, is likely dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Biden has vowed to veto it on the off chance it does make it to his desk.

The 320-page-long “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023” was nearly scuttled by Corn Belt Republicans who signaled opposition to the proposal’s repeal of some tax breaks for biofuels, such as ethanol, implemented through Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Iowa’s four Republican congressional members vowed to vote against the debt ceiling measure unless the tax-credit repeals were stripped from the bill, which House GOP leadership agreed to do earlier Wednesday. 

“I think all of us are very pleased that the speaker looked at things, and was willing to engage in conversation and to make the acknowledgment that they were being addressed retroactively,” Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) told reporters before the vote. 

Republican leaders also agreed to fast-track the proposed implementation of work requirements for Medicaid recipients, a concession made to win the support of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) – who earlier this year played a key role in holding up McCarthy’s speakership election – and other far-right members of the GOP caucus. 

The changes were adopted despite earlier repeated insistence by McCarthy and his leadership team that there would be no changes to the bill.

McCarthy’s proposal to raise the debt ceiling would allow the federal government to borrow another $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024 – whichever milestone is reached first – in exchange for discretionary spending cuts for non-defense programs. 

The legislation would limit the growth of future expenditures to 1% per year for the next decade.

“These spending limits are not draconian; they’re responsible,” McCarthy said in remarks on the House floor last week after announcing the proposal. 

The bill would also nullify President Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for certain borrowers and roll back portions of Democrats’ $739 billion government spending package implemented last year. 

While McCarthy was able to unite his conference at the 11th hour Wednesday – a major symbolic victory – Biden, 80, made it clear Wednesday that he has no intention of sitting down with the California Republican to hash out a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit that he would sign. 

“They haven’t figured out the debt limit yet,” the president said near the end of a joint press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House.

“I’m happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” Biden said.

“That’s not negotiable. I notice they quote Reagan and — they quote Reagan all the time, and they quote Trump, both of which said, and I’m paraphrasing, it would be an absolute crime not to extend the debt limit.”

The CBO projects that the Treasury Department will exhaust its emergency measures to prevent a debt default sometime between July and September if Congress doesn’t raise the country’s $31.4 trillion credit limit before then.