Freedom Caucus threatens GOP with ‘reckoning’ over debt limit deal.

Members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus have promised a “reckoning” if their Republican colleagues support the debt limit deal struck by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden.

If you’re out there watching this, every one of my colleagues, let me very be clear: Not one Republican should vote for this deal. It is a bad deal.

For months, Republicans have pushed for a “responsible” increase to the federal borrowing cap—currently set at $31.4 trillion—that is coupled with future spending cuts. Democrats, on the other hand, have demanded a “clean” increase free of any budget cuts.

Officially dubbed the “Fiscal Responsibility Act,” the 99-page deal (pdf) reached over the weekend would suspend the federal borrowing cap until January 2025 to prevent imminent default.

But while McCarthy and Biden have touted the bill as a compromise, Roy and his fellow Freedom Caucus members held Tuesday that the deal gives Republicans “nothing in return” for the $4 trillion it would ultimately add to the national debt.

At the end of the day, the only person that would default in this town is Joe Biden unless Republicans default on the American dream by voting for this bad bill. That is why this group will oppose it—we will continue to fight it today, tomorrow—and no matter what happens, there is going to be a reckoning about what just occurred unless we stop this bill by tomorrow.

A ‘Blank Check’

The McCarthy-Biden deal would increase total defense spending by about 3 percent to $886 billion while also capping non-defense discretionary spending, excluding veterans’ benefits, for fiscal year 2024 at $637 billion, representing a $1 billion decrease year-over-year. In 2025, that total would increase by 1 percent.

Other provisions include:

• The repurposing of $10 billion of IRS appropriations in both fiscal years 2024 and 2025
• Stricter work requirements to receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program
• Permitting reform for energy projects
• A claw-back of roughly $28 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief funds, excluding those related to veterans’ medical care, housing assistance, vaccine development, and the Indian Health Service

However, the Republicans noted that the concessions Biden agreed to fall far short of those they passed in the Limit, Save, Grow Act—particularly given the fact that the bill does not specify a new debt ceiling.

Tomorrow’s bill hands Biden a blank check as it doesn’t actually set a debt limit. This is an unlimited debt increase, allowing him to spend as much money as he wants through the end of his term.

Despite McCarthy’s touting of budget cuts in the bill, Boebert asserted that those cuts were so small that they amounted to “essentially nothing.”

“In short, tomorrow’s bill is a bunch of fake news and fake talking points that will do nothing to rein in out-of-control federal spending,” she said. “If every Republican voted the way that they campaigned, they would vote against tomorrow’s bad deal because this is the very thing that we all campaigned to put an end to.”