Marjorie Taylor Greene draws conservative ire for debt ceiling stance:
The Georgia Congresswoman has endorsed the deal struck between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
That is putting her in opposition to much of the House Republican Caucus’ right-wing flank.
Marjorie Taylor Greene – MAGA Traitor?
Back in January, when the Republicans in Congress were choosing a new Speaker of the House, several of the most conservative members of the House formed what was known as the “never Kevin” caucus, who sought specific promises from McCarthy in exchange for not opposing his speakership.
Notably, not part of that caucus was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Greene had been barred from committees in the previous Congress, but McCarthy had vowed to get her back on them, and the two “forged a bond.” This put Greene at odds with several of the figures on the House’s conservative flank, including her former friend Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
Now, there’s a repeat of that same dynamic, with McCarthy having made a deal with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling. Greene has expressed support for that deal, while many other arch-conservatives are in opposition.
On Twitter over the weekend, Greene praised aspects of the deal.
“Hearing @SpeakerMcCarthy’s soon-to-be-finalized agreement on the debt limit will clawback $400 MILLION from the CDC “Global Health Fund” that sends money overseas to countries like China,” she said, going on to list several countries.
“The debt ceiling fight has never been our only chance. This is a game of inches and we have the momentum,” Greene said in a subsequent tweet. “The bill text is not even out yet, let’s wait to read the bill.”
However, many lawmakers on the right expressed very different sentiments, including Boebert.
“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 said in a tweet of her own. “Our voters deserve better than this. We work for them…You can count me as a NO on this deal. We can do better.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) also expressed early opposition to the deal, stating that “I think there are even some worse components – but waiting on text… it’s worse than I thought every minute that goes by.”
In that January standoff in which McCarthy was ultimately elected speaker, one of the concessions he agreed to give the “Never Kevin” caucus was to allow any member of the caucus to pursue a “motion to vacate.” Essentially, this meant that if McCarthy did anything to upset that wing of the caucus, they could easily move to remove him as speaker.
McCarthy has, it appears, done something to upset that wing. But the speaker, per the Washington Examiner, is not worried.
“Not at all worried,” McCarthy told the newspaper.
Ousting McCarthy would require his opponents to agree on a candidate who could get a majority of the GOP caucus’ support- something they weren’t able to do against McCarthy back in January.
According to the New York Times, the deal between the president and speaker raises the debt ceiling for two years, essentially pushing the next debt ceiling standoff past the end of President Biden’s current term.
In exchange, per the Times, the agreement “cuts so-called nondefense discretionary, which includes domestic law enforcement, forest management, scientific research and more — for the 2024 fiscal year. It would limit all discretionary spending to 1 percent growth in 2025, which is effectively a budget cut because that is projected to be slower than the rate of inflation.”
While the deal will allow an increase in military spending, it will also claw back about $20 billion of the $80 billion in additional IRS funding that was passed last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. This is the funding to enable what the GOP has, falsely, characterized as an “army of 87,000 new IRS agents.”
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Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
