Four Republican House members voted against Speaker Kevin McCarthy's debt ceiling increase bill, which passed by 217-215 on Wednesday.
"As our nation is careening into a $32 trillion debt, Congress shouldn't be making final changes at 2 a.m. — the morning of the vote — to legislation raising the debt limit $1.5 trillion," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said in a statement. "While I applaud the work of my Republican colleagues to demand better energy policy, regulatory reform, welfare-to-work requirements, and less spending, a troubling fact remains. This plan will increase America's debt by $16 trillion over the next 10 years. Gaslighting nearly $50 trillion in debt to America is something my conscious cannot abide at this time."
Gaetz was joined by fellow Republicans Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee in opposing McCarthy's bill, which raises the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion while cutting back spending to 2022 levels.
"We've done our job," Reuters reported McCarthy telling reporters just after the vote. "The Republicans have raised the debt limit. You [President Joe Biden] have not. Neither has [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer, D-N.Y."
While the passage is seen as a victory for McCarthy and his young speakership, both Schumer and the Biden administration said the legislation is already "dead on arrival."
"President Biden will never force middle-class and working families to bear the burden of tax cuts for the wealthiest, as this bill does," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement to Reuters. "The president has made clear this bill has no chance of becoming law."
Democrats, including Biden, have not been willing to negotiate on the issue so far, but want a bill that comes without any conditions, the report said.
According to the report, it is not known when the Treasury Department will no longer pay the country's bills; that could come in June or later in the summer.
"I have never voted to raise our debt limit no matter who was in charge," Burchett said in a statement he tweeted regarding his vote against the bill. "Our country is nearly $32 trillion in debt right now. That's a debt neither we, nor our kids or grandkids can pay.
"We need to do whatever is necessary to get back to a balanced budget and meaningful debt reduction so this issue doesn't keep coming back to haunt us."
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