The debt ceiling has been raised after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) came to an agreement on budget specifics. The Republican speaker claims the right won the agreement, but not everyone in Congress is happy with the outcome. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) demanded the resignation of the speaker should the agreement be approved.
During a statement outside the White House on Tuesday, May 30th, Roy, accompanied by a small group of his peers, harshly criticized the arrangement. He pledged to oppose the plan and expressed sadness at the divisions within the conservative leadership. Despite their sacrifices, he said,“not one Republican should vote for this deal” because, despite their concessions, they’ll “get absolutely nothing in return.”
According to the Associated Press, Democrats have compromised on a number of topics, including raising the age at which recipients of food assistance are required to work from 50 to 54 and lending support to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will transport natural gas from West Virginia to the Mid- and South Atlantic. McCarthy, in turn, conceded to less cuts in spending.
The two-year budget included in the agreement would freeze spending through 2024 and limit it to 1% growth in 2025. It also provides for more money to be spent on the military and more money to be given to veterans.
In Roy’s opinion, the measure doesn’t go far enough. On Twitter, he referred to the agreement as “a turd sandwich” and expressed his disagreement with the reported support for the deal’s passage by 95% of his colleagues. According to Mediaite, a conservative from Texas criticized McCarthy’s readiness to compromise as a “betrayal of the power-sharing arrangement that we put in place” when Republicans accepted the House Speaker’s role.
Not every conservative thinks like that. Leader of the minority party in the Senate Mitch McConnell has called on the upper chamber to “act swiftly and pass this agreement without unnecessary delay” as soon as it reaches the upper chamber.
