Beehive State News

With the U.S. House of Representatives set to vote on the new debt ceiling bill, some Republican leaders are voicing their concerns that the bill is too complacent and does not go far enough to deliver spending cuts and change federal spending.

The U.S. is on course to default on its debt of $31 trillion unless the debt ceiling is raised, a Wednesday NBC News report said. A default would impact the nation's credit rating and raise interest rates on the national debt, affecting the government's ability to borrow money to fund federal programs. Lawmakers have been negotiating the bill the past few past months, with some Republican leaders asking that more spending cuts be written into the legislation to decrease federal spending moving forward.

There seems to be a general consensus among Republican leaders on the latest version of the bill, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) seems confident will receive enough bipartisan support to push it through to the Senate, a Wednesday New York Times report said. Both the Senate's majority and minority leaders have voiced support for the bill, and if passed it will go to President Joe Biden’s desk for final approval.

But some Republican leaders have voiced disapproval of the bill. On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) appeared on a Twitter Spaces discussion hosted by the Tea Party Patriots to discuss the new debt ceiling proposal.

“Time after time after time, this bill promises to do one thing, and then doesn’t deliver on that thing,” Lee said in the discussion. He also noted that Democrats were putting pressure on conservative Republicans in both houses by trying to make them responsible for anything that goes wrong if the debt ceiling is not raised. Republicans are still fighting to reduce federal discretionary spending, which still hovers around COVID-19 relief numbers and has not been lowered to pre-pandemic levels.

"I'd encourage all within the sound of my voice who find this persuasive to do everything they can to educate and inform and encourage members of both houses, anyone who will listen to you, not to vote for this," Lee said.

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) also weighed in during the discussion, explaining that the bill has hidden money in areas that basically undermines most of the supposed cuts that Democrats promised.

“So yes, they're going to rescind a little over $28 billion,” Biggs said. “Of that, $22 billion is going to be parked in commerce and is going to be used to backfill and facilitate spending above the so-called caps. And the actual rescission amount is going to be closer to $6 billion.”

Former Ohio Republican Congressman Bob McEwen accused lawmakers of making compromises to retain their positions instead of representing the will of their constituents. He encouraged listeners to be active.

“You and I have a responsibility to go to every one of our members and say ‘do not do this, and when you've done it, we're going to make sure that you can't do it again,’” McEwen said in the discussion. He also noted that all of those leaders who passed the bill would soon “rue that day.”