SPOKEN: President Biden BLASTS McCarthy over debt ceiling debacle
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) negotiated a terrible deal for himself to become House Speaker after fourteen embarrassing voting rounds showed his party was in clear disarray.
The “Weaker Speaker” only won that fifteenth round after agreeing to a bunch of different things that wouldn’t actually benefit him.
But my favorite one allows any member of the House to call for a challenge vote to remove McCarthy as Speaker at any time for any reason.
While we’re still waiting for that to happen, the GOP is still using its razor-thin majority to play performative politics in public while continuing to fracture behind closed Capitol doors.
One of the biggest issues looming over KKKevin’s head (besides Trump’s undercarriage) is the fight with President Joe Biden regarding the debt ceiling.
The TL/Don’t Make Me Read version goes like this:
McCarthy (Barney Fife-ishly pulling at his collar): Um, yeah, so, you’re gonna, um, negotiate on the debt ceiling, Brand–Mr. President.
President Joe Biden (laughing while cleaning his sunglasses): Yeah, that’s not happening, Chuckles.
Republicans are big mad at McCarthy for caving to Dark Brandon, but that’s what happens when you cede full ownership of whatever used to be your micro-sack to Trump.
The Weaker Speaker still went ahead with a new plan to make cuts that a new Reuters study says would hit red states the hardest:
McCarthy’s plan, which he presented as a condition for raising the United States’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, calls for cutting some agency budgets by 7% this year and capping their growth by 1% annually after that.
A Reuters analysis of federal spending data indicates that his proposed domestic-spending caps could be felt most acutely in the states that backed Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Joe:
The debt ceiling issue isn’t actually a laughing matter, and neither are starving kids in the United States of America.
McCarthy also proposed stricter requirements for benefits programs like SNAP, which they keep calling “food stamps” while claiming poor people take advantage of the system.
In reality, SNAP provides grocery money for certain food items, and millions of people would go hungry without those benefits.
Kevin McCarthy’s cuts would hit GOP-leaning states harder, however, 3.1% of the population in those states could lose benefits, compared with 2.8% of residents in Biden states.
So, keep trying to kill off your own voting base, KKKevin, that’s a super effective political strategy.
While the ineffectual McCarthy gives us plenty of reasons to keep mocking him, Joe Biden will just be over here being the most successful President since LBJ, thanks.
President Biden calls out Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the debt ceiling:
“He proposed huge cuts to important programs that millions of Americans count on … He threatened to become the first Speaker to default on our national debt … What are MAGA Republicans in Congress doing?” pic.twitter.com/yzIyqf5BsR
— The Recount (@therecount) April 18, 2023
President Joe Biden hit back at Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday after the Speaker said yesterday a "no-strings-attached" debt ceiling bill will not pass. pic.twitter.com/yuFkqJzChb
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 18, 2023
*THIS IS AN OPINION COLUMN THAT SOLELY REPRESENTS THE OPINIONS OF TARA DUBLIN. HOORAY FOR THE FREE PRESS!*
Other hot takes by Tara Dublin can be found on TikTok and Twitter @taradublinrocks.
