“I want to be very clear. No Republican gets to vote for the deal. We’re working hard to make sure it’s stopped,” Congressman Chip Roy, one of those most likely to support the Democratic Party’s pact, said at a news conference. and Republican negotiators.
Members of the Freedom Caucus, a group that unites the far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives, are mobilizing their ranks against the bill that will prevent the US from entering an unprecedented default situation before June 5. , according to the Treasury Department, the US is exhausting its payment capacity.
If approved, the deal will allow the debt limit to be raised for the next two years, meaning it will end after the next presidential election.
The proposal maintains defense-related spending in 2024 and increases it by one percent in 2025. On the other hand, while the cuts do not affect programs such as health or social security, social programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
“Faced with a program as ephemeral and pernicious as this one, I will vote ‘no’ and I urge my colleagues to vote ‘no’,” added Andy Biggs, who presented a bill last week that advocated the use of unused funds, such as those related to covid aid and assistance, to bring forward the date of a default and continue negotiations.
The Conservative-dominated lower house of Congress had already approved on April 26 a proposal to raise the debt limit in exchange for major cuts in government spending.
“Negotiating doesn’t mean completely ignoring what we had approved,” criticized Congressman Ralph Norman.
Another Republican congressman, Lauren Boebert, endorsed this understanding by stating that neither US President, Joe Biden, nor the Democratic-controlled Senate did their part: “If every Republican votes according to what he defended in his campaign, tomorrow [quarta-feira] will vote against this bad deal”.
The vote in the House of Representatives still depends on the decision of the Rules Committee, which meets today. This committee is made up of four elected Democrats and nine Republicans, including three of the agreement’s most ardent opponents: the aforementioned Roy and Norman, as well as Tom Massie.
“The deal is a failure and we will oppose it completely and will do everything we can to stop it,” Freedom Caucus chairman Scott Perry told reporters.
Among the Democrats, there are also those who express reservations, namely with regard to the concessions being made in social spending.
One of them, Congressman Danny Davis, stressed today that the next 24 hours “will be decisive.
For his part, he added, he will vote depending on the clarifications he manages to obtain: “I am concerned about meeting the needs of people who need support,” he said at another press conference.
Source: DN
