House speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to unite the "five families" within the Republican caucus to raise the national borrowing limit and avoid a potentially crippling debt default.
Leaders from the various ideological factions met last week in McCarthy's office to discuss possible strategies for raising the debt ceiling, but the White House and Senate Democrats are insisting on a "clean" hike that doesn't include any spending cuts, reported CNN.
“There’s a level of trust and engagement within the five families that I have not seen in the previous four years,” said South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), chairman of the center-right Main Street Caucus. “We’re working really well together.”
The nickname is a reference to the New York mob families depicted in "The Godfather," and the meeting provides a glimpse of McCarthy's management of his narrow majority against the White House position on raising the debt ceiling.
“We’re not going to accept ‘no negotiation,’” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), "and there’s not going to be a clean debt ceiling, alright?”
The White House and Senate Democrats don't think McCarthy can find enough votes and will be forced to cave to avoid default, but McCarthy expressed frustration with President Joe Biden after their meeting last week.
“They say they don’t want to put the economy in jeopardy,” McCarthy told CNN. “I think that would be the wrong approach.”
Republicans so far have remained united behind McCarthy's intention to force the White House to accept some cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit, and so far the factions haven't publicly floated competing proposals.
“There’s no sense in us, one group, putting something out, another group puts something out,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC). “To his credit, Kevin has done a good job of getting us all together and getting us on the same page."