May 30, 2023 - US debt ceiling deal news

Some Republicans are joining staunch opponent of the debt limit bill Rep. Chip Roy — who called the deal a "betrayal of the power-sharing arrangement that we put in place."

Roy has threatened House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership role over the deal during an interview with Glenn Beck, saying that if the deal can't be killed in rules or on the floor "Then we're going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again."

These comments were confirmed to CNN through his spokesperson.

“We will continue to fight it today, tomorrow, and no matter what happens, there's going to be a reckoning about what just occurred, unless we stopped this bill by tomorrow,” Roy later told reporters in a noon Freedom Caucus news conference Tuesday.  

Here's what other Republican lawmakers are saying:

Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry slammed the bill, saying, “This deal fails, fails completely. And that's why these members and others will be absolutely opposed to the deal and we will do everything in our power to stop it.” 

Rep. Andrew Clyde said, “I’m a hard no in this fiscally irresponsible insanity."

Rep. Dan Bishop called the Wednesday vote “a career-defining” one. 

Bishop also sent a stark message to the GOP conference: “You are the key to our being able to reacquire the unity now. It’s going to take some steps, by the way, because the leadership decision to forfeit that is going to have to be dealt with.”

Rep. Byron Donalds called the bill “crap” and said, “This bill keeps the Biden baseline intact for the federal agencies.” 

“More and more Republicans as they read this bill are no’s,” Donalds added. 

Donalds also slammed the lack of border measures. “The least we could have done a secure the southern border. And we didn't do that either.” 

Rep. Ralph Norman, a conservative who is also expected to oppose the debt limit deal and sits on the House Rules Committee, said he has lost “some trust” in McCarthy.

He said that the bill itself is a “violation” of the agreement reached with McCarthy in January to get him the votes to become Speaker.  

“McCarthy has lost some trust in how this has been handled,” said Norman. “I like Kevin, he's done a good job to date. But I will tell you, this is an issue that we're very upset about.” 

Sen. Mike Lee, a conservative Republican of Utah, slammed the debt ceiling agreement for giving more to Democrats than Republicans. 

“You will see this uniting Democrats in a way that it will not unite Republicans. You may, well, you’re likely to have more Democrats vote for this in both Chambers than Republicans,” Lee said in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday. 

Lee said that Democrats seemingly got more out of the deal than Republicans did.

“There’s not a whole lot of give here if this is a quid pro quo … there’s a whole lot of quid and not much quo and we got kind of screwed here,” Lee said. 

He suggested that this deal may impact the 2024 presidential landscape, making it more difficult for a Republican to win. 

Last week Lee announced that he intended to “use every procedural tool at my disposal to impede a debt-ceiling deal that doesn’t contain substantial spending and budgetary reforms.”

Although Lee did not directly criticize McCarthy, he implied that he does not understand the full impact of the agreement.  

GOP firebrand and staunch opponent of the debt bill, Rep. Chip Roy, called the deal a "betrayal of the power-sharing arrangement that we put in place" and lashed out against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. 

Roy made the strongest threat yet to McCarthy's gavel during an interview with Glenn Beck, saying if it can't be killed in rules or on the floor, "then we're going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again."

These comments were confirmed to CNN through his spokesperson and he will echo these remarks at a news conference with the House Freedom Caucus.

A number of critics, like Republican Sen. Rand Paul, are pushing to amend the debt limit agreement. 

Paul released a statement outlining his alternative plan to be considered as an amendment Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have to agree to let these votes happen in order to reach a time agreement and expedite a vote on the final passage of the debt limit deal later this week or into the weekend.

The Biden administration is “confident” legislation to lift the nation’s debt ceiling will reach the president’s desk despite opposition from some corners of both parties, Bharat Ramamurti, White House deputy director for the National Economic Council, told CNN Tuesday.

Ramamurti pushed back against against comments this weekend from GOP lawmaker Dusty Johnson that there are “no wins” in the legislation for Democrats, saying the administration “respectfully disagree” with the Republican representative's assessment.

“I think you have to take a bigger picture, look at all of this,” he said. “Not everybody is going to get everything that they want, that's the reality of governing. But overall, the President has an economic vision, that economic vision is working, and what this deal allows us to do is continue to see that through over the next two years and preserve the victories that we've gotten so far.” 

The spending caps agreed to in the legislation “can always be overridden in the future if there’s really strong need for something,” Ramamurti added, particularly in the case of additional funding requests for natural disaster relief or Ukraine funding.

He also took the opportunity to defend against progressive criticism of the bill, telling CNN the legislation “is the capstone to a set of incredible progressive accomplishments over the last two years.”

“We urge everyone from the most progressive member of the House to the most conservative to take a look at this deal," Ramamurti told CNN. "Consider what it means to the country to avoid a first ever default on our debt, and again, we expect and presume that we will see this on the president's desk sooner rather than later."

Cryptocurrencies are often characterized by their wild price swings and volatility, but stablecoins are digital currencies designed to do the opposite — to hold a steady value.

If you have a stablecoin that is supposed to be equal to $1, then you can theoretically trust that it will always be worth one dollar. It’s like having a digital version of a dollar bill. That makes it easier to use cryptocurrencies for everyday things like buying goods or services, and reduces the risks associated with regular cryptocurrencies, which can go up or down in value very quickly.

These coins have become a crucial part of the overall crypto system — they currently have a market value nearing $130 billion, up from about $11 billion in June 2020. A lot of money is on the line, and with just days left until the US reaches its so-called X date — when the Treasury says the government must raise the debt ceiling or risk defaulting on its obligations — stablecoin companies are worried.

Circle, a financial service company that issues one of the world’s largest stablecoins tied to the US dollar, known as a USDC, has been preparing for months.

Here's what Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNN about what his company is doing:

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat of West Virginia, praised President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for coming to an agreement on the debt ceiling – and, crucially, including legislation that would expedite the creation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in his home state.

“All of a sudden, they [the White House] did their job, they negotiated. And Kevin McCarthy did his job by putting something first and starting this negotiation. So I applaud both sides,” Manchin said in an interview on TalkLine with Hoppy Kercheval on Tuesday.

Manchin had been an outspoken critic of the White House for not sitting down to negotiate with the speaker earlier this year. Asked who specifically he spoke to get legislation expediting the MVP in the agreement, Manchin said “Everybody.”

“Everybody knew how important this was,” Manchin said.

Responding to those who are opposed to the pipeline, Manchin said, “We're gonna have some of that we understand and I respectfully disagree with them.”

He added that he thinks the agreement will have enough votes to pass in the Senate.

Opposition within the Democratic party: Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, plans to propose an amendment to the debt ceiling agreement which would remove the legislation to expedite the creation of the gas pipeline

“Senator Kaine is extremely disappointed by the provision of the bill to greenlight the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia, bypassing the normal judicial and administrative review process every other energy project has to go through. This provision is completely unrelated to the debt ceiling matter. He plans to file an amendment to remove this harmful Mountain Valley Pipeline provision,” a Kaine spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

When asked about Kaine’s disapproval of the funding for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Manchin said that he “respectfully disagrees” with Kaine on the issue.

Kaine’s office would not comment to CNN on whether he would vote for the debt agreement if his amendment is not added.

GOP Rep. Dan Bishop from North Carolina, a hardline conservative and major opponent of the debt bill, told Steve Bannon on his podcast Tuesday that he expects key holdout GOP Rep. Thomas Massie from Kentucky will vote yes in the House Rules Committee today at 3 p.m. ET.

Bishop also noted that Massie is a difficult man to get to change his mind and is staunch in his beliefs. 

Massie’s yes vote would give Republicans enough support to advance the bill out of committee.

Massie on Tuesday declined to say how he would vote in the House Rules Committee or on the debt limit deal.

He told CNN he is “not aware“ of an alleged secret agreement that rules must pass with the support of all nine Republicans on the committee. 

“If there was, I might have used it already,” Massie said as he was heading to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's office.  

President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker McCarthy put their long weekend to good use, coming to an agreement to raise the debt ceiling in the hope of avoiding a self imposed default on US government debt.

Now comes the hard part. Lawmakers have to also approve the deal. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by June 5, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns the government will not have enough funds to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time.

Here’s a breakdown of what the deal would do (you can also read the bill in full here):

Address the debt ceiling: The agreement would suspend the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt limit through January 1, 2025. This removes it as a potential issue in the 2024 presidential election.

Cap non-defense spending: Under the deal, non-defense spending would remain relatively flat in fiscal 2024 and increase by 1% in fiscal 2025, after certain adjustments to appropriations were made, according to a White House official. After fiscal 2025, there would be no budget caps.

Cut Internal Revenue Service funding: House Republicans have been determined to jettison money allotted to the IRS to fight fraud. The debt ceiling bill does that, rescinding $1.4 billion in IRS funding.

Expand work requirements: The agreement calls for temporarily broadening of work requirements for certain adults receiving food stamps.

Claw back some Covid-19 relief funds: The deal would rescind roughly $28 billion in unobligated funds from the Covid-19 relief packages that Congress passed to respond to the pandemic, according to the House GOP.

Restart student loan repayments: Under the deal, borrowers would have to begin paying back their student loans at the end of the summer, as the Biden administration has already announced. The pause has been in effect since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Expedite a pipeline in West Virginia: The agreement would also speed the creation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.

CNN's Nicole Goodkind contributed reporting to this post. 

The nation is days away from defaulting on its obligations. The Republican House speaker, pushed by conservatives in his party, demands deep spending cuts. The president, a Democrat, works on negotiating a package to avert a fiscal calamity.

No, the previous paragraph isn't about 2023.

It describes 2011, when then-President Barack Obama agreed to a debt ceiling deal that called for more than $900 billion in upfront spending cuts and deficit reduction, as well as the creation of a joint congressional committee that would find at least $1.2 trillion in additional belt tightening.

The situation is similar to the one President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, is facing today. He and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, are pushing their parties to swiftly approve their agreement to address the current debt limit drama before the US could start missing payments on June 5.

Today’s House Republicans may want to look back at the results of their predecessors’ hard-fought deal. Things didn’t proceed as planned, and a chunk of the reductions was ultimately pared back through a subsequent series of bipartisan bills.

Read more here about how the 2011 deal compares to the 2023 one.