'Crazy cuckoo MAGA people' could sink debt ceiling deal: Dem strategist
After news broke on Saturday that President Joe Biden and United States House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) struck an agreement to avert an unprecedented default, Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella explained how Biden outmaneuvered McCarthy.
Biden said in a statement late Saturday night that "the agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. That's the responsibility of governing. And, this agreement is good news for the American people, because it prevents what could have been a catastrophic default and would have led to an economic recession, retirement accounts devastated, and millions of jobs lost."
Likewise, CNN noted that "the agreement – which would raise the debt ceiling for two years, freeze spending on domestic programs, increase spending on defense and veterans issues, impose some new work requirements on federal food assistance programs and change some rules around energy permitting – was meant to include provisions that could sway members of both parties to vote for it. Yet even ahead of the deal's announcement, House members on both the left and right were already balking at some of the details said to be included in the package. Republicans who had demanded larger spending cuts threatened to withhold their support, while Democrats voiced concern that new rules on social safety net programs would send more Americans into poverty."
Appearing on MSNBC, Bardella pointed out that whether the US defaults now entirely depends upon McCarthy's ability to wrangle the "extremists" within his caucus.
"You know, I think actually because of this deal coming right now, the expectation game has been well managed now because the ball's really in Kevin McCarthy's court now. The pressure is on Kevin McCarthy to deliver the votes. If this thing falls apart now, it's going to be because of House Republicans — because of MAGA extremists — successfully holding McCarthy hostage once again, and that they are the ones who will get the blame. We will be done with this both sides narrative that each side has something to lose, that this could blow back on the president. No, no, no, no," Bardella said.
"The president made a deal. The president did what he was elected to do — deliver deals for the American people that protects the most vulnerable among us," Barella continued. "If this falls apart, if we default, if the economy craters, Kevin McCarthy is now the face of this deal. There's a reason why he was the one that was on camera tonight and not the president. So if this goes down because Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert or any of those crazy cuckoo MAGA people decide to tank the US economy, it is one hundred percent going to be at the feet of the Republican Party and not the president."
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