Far-right lawmakers escalate threats to boot McCarthy from Speakership after debt deal passage
Kevin McCarthy is not out of the woods yet.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) cleared a massive challenge on Wednesday when he managed to deliver just enough votes from the Republican caucus, along with a large cohort of Democrats, to pass the landmark debt ceiling and deficit reduction agreement he brokered with President Joe Biden, which is now expected to move quickly through the Senate and avert a national default after weeks of tense bipartisan negotiations.
But now he faces another potential obstacle, reported The Daily Beast: the far-right wing of the House GOP, who is enraged the deal happened at all — and want McCarthy to suffer for it.
"Instead of exiting debt ceiling negotiations with President Joe Biden hoisting a triumphant deal, McCarthy came out with something lukewarm. A narrow addition of work requirements for food stamp recipients between the ages of 50 and 54. Ending the pause on federal student loan payments. A suspension of the debt limit until 2025. Minimal spending caps for two years that would only technically cut spending if you consider the increases relative to inflation," reported Ursula Perano and Sam Brodey. "The deal passed Wednesday night 314-117, with 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats voting for it, and 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats voting no. Republicans control the House, but it was Democrats who primarily got the measure across the finish line."
As a result of this, some far-right lawmakers are ramping up threats to use a parliamentary procedure to force a confidence vote to eject McCarthy from the Speakership — something he was, ironically, forced to put in the rules in order to get the votes necessary to become Speaker in the first place.
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Some lawmakers, like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), had been making threats of this sort even before the vote happened — but for now, said the report, few in the caucus have treated this as a serious possibility. Another is Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), who said, “He’s blown Republican unity to smithereens. So, you can put that in terms of trust, if you want to. It’s just something that is functionally destroyed.”
"The good news for McCarthy is that it would take more than just one Republican to remove him from his position. The bad news is that it wouldn’t take much more than a half-dozen — if Democrats want to cooperate with the coup," said the report. "The slim GOP majority in the House means that McCarthy has very little wiggle room. And even if 95 percent of his conference is behind him, that last five percent could sink him."
