Kevin McCarthy privately trashes GOP underlings amid debt ceiling fight: NYT

The House GOP is hurtling toward a crisis that could see the United States default on the national debt, and a new report from The New York Times shows just how little confidence House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has in his fellow Republicans.

According to the report, McCarthy has lost confidence in House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who is the second-most powerful Republican in the caucus, on the grounds that he is "ineffective, checked out and reluctant to take a position on anything."

McCarthy doesn't feel that much better about Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), whom McCarthy believes to be "incompetent" despite the fact that he's now the Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

"Mr. McCarthy has told colleagues he has no confidence in Mr. Arrington, the man responsible for delivering a budget framework laying out the spending cuts that Republicans have said they will demand in exchange for any move to increase the debt limit," reports the Times.

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The report notes that there is still mistrust and bitterness between McCarthy and other Republicans over the historically drawn-out vote to make him Speaker of the House earlier this year, as the California Republican persistently doubts the loyalty of his underlings whom he depends on to get important work done.

A failure of the United States Congress to raise the debt ceiling would lead to a national default that economists say might have catastrophic consequences for the country.