Kevin McCarthy has his old words thrown back in his face after trying to stop the government from paying its bills

On Monday, following the refusal of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to provide any Republican votes in the House for funding the federal government and raising the debt ceiling, assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark (D-MA) reminded the GOP leader of his own words six years ago, when Republicans controlled the House and did not want to own a debt default themselves.

"When the United States makes promises, it keeps them, which is why the House voted today to avoid the threat of a debt default," wrote McCarthy in the tweet posted by Clark, first flagged by Newsweek.

The debt ceiling is an overall limit on the amount of money the United States can borrow — although not, crucially, a limit on the amount it can spend, meaning that going over it would trigger a catastrophic default on money already spent, which could lead to a global economic shockwave and millions of Americans --including troops and retirees -- having to go without federal payments.

Republicans are refusing to contribute any votes to raising the debt ceiling, despite having raised it numerous times themselves, which could force Democrats to find a way to get around the filibuster to pass a debt ceiling increase alone.