GOP Goes After House Democrats On Debt Limit, Overspending

Washington, D.C. – No one knows when the United States will run out of money – or to be more precise – the authority to borrow more – but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's suggesting it may be as soon as June 1 has turned up the heat on the debt ceiling dumpster fire.

What's going on now is more about politics than it is about the U.S. economy. Joe Biden doesn't want to be the president on whose watch America first defaulted on its debt. On the other hand, he doesn't want to pull back on any of his spending proposals. He's trapped between the proverbial rock and hard place as long as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stands his ground.

Is McCarthy bluffing? Probably not. He proved he's made of strong stuff during the multiple ballots it took for him to be elected to the top job in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill he pushed through on the debt limit by the narrowest of margins agrees to an increase in exchange for spending cuts and other things.

It's good politics – a recent Rasmussen Reports poll showed his plan had the backing of 57% of Americans likely to vote in the next election – and it's good policy. (RELATED: What Speaker McCarthy Must Do To Curb Washington's Spending Addiction)

What the House has approved reduces the projected federal debt by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, reinstates work requirements for welfare programs, caps spending increases at one percent and increases American domestic oil and gas production.

That, says a new analysis released by Jeff Yass of Susquehanna Capital and the Club for Growth's David McIntosh, will create $2.7 trillion in wealth arising from the McCarthy plan's pro-growth reforms combined with an estimated $900 billion that won't be lost because the debt ceiling remains intact.

What Biden wants is a clean bill, one that increases the debt limit without doing anything else. No reduction in the money going to the IRS, no pullback on the construction of the green energy infrastructure and no limits on future spending.

It's a plan progressives will love but it should have the so-called moderate Democrats, the ones elected in districts that voted for Donald Trump rather than Biden in 2020 and the ones who got endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups quaking in their shoes. If a default comes, they'll get the blame because they stood with Biden rather than try to work out a deal.

If they're not feeling it now, they soon will. A paid digital ad campaign announced Monday by the National Republican Congressional Committee is going after 35 of those Democrats with a message that their addiction to “reckless spending” has pushed America further and further down the road toward an economic catastrophe. (RELATED: Vulnerable Republican To Appear At Biden Event)

“Extreme House Democrats demand to keep spending our money like drunken sailors or they'll tank the economy and allow America to default,” NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said. “Every House Democrat said ‘No' to addressing the spending crisis they created – if they won't pay the tab they racked up, then they'll pay at the ballot box.”

The House members on the target list are some of the nation's most vulnerable, especially if the economy turns southward, including Virginia's Abigail Spanberger, California's Josh Harder, Kansas' Sharice Davids, Michigan's Dan Kildee, Pennsylvania's Susan Wild and all three Democrats from Nevada: Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford.

The campaign is being launched at the same time the president and McCarthy finally begin the face-to-face negotiations the GOP House Speaker has been seeking for some time.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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