Lauren Boebert is at it again.
The MAGA Congresswomen wants to torpedo the debt ceiling agreement just crafted by Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy.
Could she pull it off?
Lauren Boebert Is Irrate
Representative Lauren Boebert is promising to vote against the new debt ceiling agreement on the grounds that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy capitulated to President Joe Biden during negotiations, and the resultant terms are unacceptable.
“Our base didn’t volunteer, door knock and fight so hard to get us the majority for this kind of compromise deal with Joe Biden,” Boebert wrote on Twitter. “Our voters deserve better than this. We work for them. You can count me as a NO on this deal. We can do better.”
Boebert’s input comes on the heels of the announcement that Biden and McCarthy had reached an “agreement in principle” to raise the debt ceiling (and avoid a default). Reaching an agreement in principle took weeks of intense discussion – and a degree of brinksmanship that made most Americans uncomfortable.
Now, the deal, in the form of a 99-page bill, will need to pass Congress – ideally before the June 5th default. But the deal, which features compromises from both parties, has angered certain members of Congress – Lauren Boebert, for example – who are now threatening to tank the deal.
The deal is full of compromises
Biden urged members of Congress to sign the deal into law, to avoid a default. “Over the next day, our negotiating teams will finalize legislative text and the agreement will go to the United States House and Senate. I strongly urge both chambers to pass the agreement right away.”
“The agreement represents a compromise,” President Biden said in a statement, “which means not everyone gets what they want. That’s the responsibility of governing.” Biden added that the deal “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.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy, who has to answer to conservatives like Boebert, tried to put a conservative-friendly spin on the deal. “We still have a lot of work to do, but I believe this is an agreement in principle that’s worthy of the American people. McCarthy added that the deal has “historic reductions in spending, consequential reforms that will lift people out of poverty into the workforce, reign in government overreach, there are no new taxes. No new government programs.”
McCarthy also jumped on Twitter to promote the deal, which he called a “responsible debt limit agreement.”
“Republicans are poised to deliver, big consequential change in Washington,” McCarthy wrote. “Soon, we will vote for a responsible debt limit agreement that stops Democrats’ reckless spending, claws back unspent COVID funds, blocks Biden’s new tax schemes, & much, much more.”
What Boebert wanted
Presumably, Boebert and her fellow hardline conservatives wanted to see a stricter spending cap in the new deal.
The deal includes a spending cap – but the cap is in place for two years (Republicans had originally sought a ten-year cap), which has angered conservatives.
Similarly, Biden protected entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which Republicans wanted to gut. The deal will also “effectively preserve substantial increases won by the Biden administration … in areas like Title I education funding for low-income students, Child Care and Development Block Grants, cancer research.”
So, Boebert will take to Twitter and see if she can rally some support for a defection.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
