May 30, 2023 - US debt ceiling deal news

Speaker Kevin McCarthy told GOP members that he did not fail on the debt deal during a meeting behind closed doors on the debt limit agreement.

The speaker appeared upbeat in the meeting, the member added. McCarthy kicked it off by telling members: “Let’s have fun tonight?”

On his way into the meeting, McCarthy was asked by CNN what his message is to GOP members voting no, to which he quipped: “Vote yes.”

McCarthy received applause and a standing ovation as he entered the room. 

Rep. Chip Roy stood up during the conference meeting and slammed the Sunday conference call as a “cheerleading” meeting, another GOP member who was there told CNN. Roy said they aren’t actually getting anything in terms of energy reforms and complained that it’s still $4 trillion, the member said, adding that Roy railed against the bill for three minutes in front of the conference.  

Another GOP member in attendance said McCarthy also told House Republicans he didn’t want the Senate to jam them with a clean debt ceiling and that he wanted the House to be the leaders.

Rep. Nancy Mace, who said she’d oppose the debt limit deal, told CNN Republican messaging is not “an honest display of what the bill does.” 

“I read it multiple times. And I’m disappointed with the way that it’s been messaged, because I don’t think it’s been an honest display of what the bill does,” Mace said.

“It doesn’t cut spending, does very little for the deficit and really, it’s D.C. math for two years,” Mace said. “And the CBO score just came out, come to find out we’re also expanding government benefits, government welfare as well on this bill.” 

Mace added that she “won’t be supporting it.”

“It doesn’t cut spending in the way that we should,” she said.

The Congressional Budget Office told House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a letter Tuesday night that the debt ceiling bill negotiated between House GOP leadership and the White House would reduce budget deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. 

If the bill is enacted, the agency wrote that “mandatory spending would, on net, decrease by $10 billion, and revenues would, on net, decrease by $2 billion over the 2023–2033 period.”
“As a consequence, interest on the public debt would decline by $188 billion,” the letter read.

Discretionary spending would also be reduced by a projected $1.3 trillion over the 2024-2033 period.

But in a troubling sign for McCarthy, the CBO also warned that changes to work requirement provisions in the food stamps program “would increase federal spending by about $2.1 billion over the 2023–2033 period.”

The bill would increase the upper age limit of the existing work requirement through 54, but veterans, homeless Americans and former foster youth of all ages would be exempt. Combined, these provisions would increase the number of people receiving benefits by about 78,000 people in an average month during the 2025 to 2030 period, when they were fully in effect, according to the agency.

GOP members had insisted on broadening work requirements for those in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are formally known.

The bill would also make changes to the work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which the CBO estimates would reduce direct spending by $5 million over the decade.

The CBO told McCarthy that rescinding the funding for the Internal Revenue Service would “result in fewer enforcement actions over the next decade and in a reduction in revenue collections.”

The CBO estimates that those changes would account for a $1.4 billion decrease in spending outlays, but a larger $2.3 billion decrease in revenues, and an increase in the deficit by an additional $900 million.

The House Rules Committee voted 7-6 to advance the debt ceiling bill to the floor.

As the CNN Hill Team has reported over the day, Republican Rep. Ralph Norman and Rep. Chip Roy voted against the measure. 

The bill will come to floor Wednesday for debate and a final passage vote.

House Democrats are sounding off over the concessions the White House made to Republicans in the debt limit deal. 

“I’m still undecided. I mean, I’m angry that we are being held hostage and we are continuing to be held hostage because we do not have a choice,” Rep. Debbie Dingell told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I think to a Democrat, none of us believe that we can default the debt ceiling.” 

Rep. Jared Huffman said, “As much as I believe from a budgetary perspective, Republicans really didn’t accomplish much in this deal, we did make other concessions to them that are really tough to swallow,”

“I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to vote, but I will tell you, I don’t feel good about it,” he added.

Both were particularly concerned with the environmental policy changes, including measures in the National Environmental Policy Act.

Dingell’s late husband, Rep. John Dingell, was one of the authors of the law, which requires environmental review process for certain projects. The debt ceiling bill would streamline that process, causing concerns among many Democrats that it could harm the environment. 

Huffman called the move “mean,” saying that “it’s a step backward on climate and environmental policy. And I’m not thrilled about that.”

He also criticized Sen. Joe Manchin for pushing for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to be included in the deal. The agreement contains a surprising call to speed up the creation of the stalled natural gas pipeline.

“The Manchin piece is especially hard to swallow,” he said. “This is the equivalent of building dozens of coal fired power plants at a time, when we really should be confronting the climate crisis in a more serious way.”

Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative Republican from Kentucky, said he will not stop the debt ceiling bill from being expedited in the Senate if he is allowed a vote on his proposed amendment.

“My opinion is that we should demand votes on amendments, and if we get the votes on amendments, the exchange would be that we allow them to speed up time,” Paul said. 

One Senator alone has the power to hold up a bill on the Senate floor if they chose to do so.

Paul acknowledged that he does not think he would get 50 votes on his amendment.

“I don’t think there are 50 votes. I think about half of the Republican caucus will support mine. No Democrats will support it. But the American people need to know that’s where we are,” Paul said.  

Sen. Mike Lee said “we’ll see” when asked by CNN’s Manu Raju about whether he would hold up a time agreement. Last week Lee said 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.”

Some Senate Democrats are not enthusiastic about the debt ceiling agreement, while multiple say they are still reviewing the bill and others have not yet decided if they will support it ahead of the June 5 deadline.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he is “far from ecstatic about some of the provisions,” and is still in the process of looking at it. He did say the agreement “seems like a reasonable and constructive way to avoid the catastrophe of default.”

Sen. Ben Cardin told reporters he is specifically concerned about spending numbers and recissions for the Small Business Administration, as he is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. “The bottom line is I really want to understand what is in here before reaching a decision,” he said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she still has concerns and continues to read. When asked if she has talked to the White House about her concerns, she said she has told “everyone.” 

Sen. Chris Murphy said he will speak to the White House tomorrow about some remaining questions he has about the deal, and said that “details have been a little hard to come by.” 

Sen. Bernie Sanders would not say whether he intends to support the bill. “You’ll see,” he told CNN. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown said he does not know yet if he’ll support the bill. “There’s many priorities I have this didn’t address,” he said. “We just hope we beat back and think we beat back most of those efforts.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen also said he has not made a final decision on the bill, but that the “framework looks good.”  

Sen. Chris Coons, a key ally of President Joe Biden, seemed more positive. He told CNN that he thinks the bill will have the support of the Democratic conference. 

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is not seeking re-election, said she supports the bill.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is opposing the bipartisan debt ceiling deal, said Republicans would try to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker if a majority of the House GOP conference does not back the bill. 

“If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy to allow his ascent to the speakership, and would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate,” Gaetz said on Newsmax. “I think Speaker McCarthy knows that. That’s why he is working hard to make sure he gets 120; 150; 160 votes.” 

He told CNN he has “not been involved in any discussion about ousting McCarthy from the speakership” and added that he believes it’s unlikely that it will happen.

“I don’t see Speaker McCarthy ever bringing any legislation to the floor that does not have a majority of the majority,” Gaetz said. “He made that commitment in the speaker contest. There’s no misunderstanding about that.”

Remember: McCarthy, however, has repeatedly expressed confidence that a majority of House Republicans will back the bill. On Tuesday, one of the key debt limit negotiators said he too is confident about House Republicans’ support for the bill, despite pushback from conservatives. 

Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on Senate Intelligence, is among voices criticizing components of the deal. He told CNN that the “defense number is a problem for me” in the debt limit bill, and that he’s “torn a little bit about it.”

And Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on Senate Armed Services, told CNN “I’m struggling” with the bill because of the Pentagon funding levels agreed to by McCarthy and Biden.

“In terms of purchasing power, it’s a substantial cut,” he said.

Republicans say the Pentagon’s budget will suffer because the agreed-upon levels don’t keep up with inflation.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune said he is confident there will be at least nine Republican senators who support the debt ceiling bill once it comes to the chamber.

This will likely pave the way for the eventual passage of the bill if Senate Democrats are unified.

“None of these are perfect. We all know that. Members are concerned about the defense number, but you have to weigh it in the context of everything that was achieved and yes, it certainly wasn’t a perfect deal from our vantage point, but I think the wins certainly are significant,” Thune said. 

The big question now is how long it is going to take to pass it.  

“If we receive it tomorrow night then it is just a question of figuring out what the appetite is for amendments and kind of how our guys want to proceed,” Thune said. 

Remember: The timeframe to get the bill passed through both chambers of Congress and signed into law is extremely tight. Lawmakers are racing the clock to avert a catastrophic default ahead of June 5, the day the Treasury Department has said it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time.

The powerful House Rules Committee must vote to adopt the rule, a hurdle that must be cleared before the bill can come to the House floor for a final vote. If the bill passes in the full House, it would then head to the Senate for approval.

Procedurally, there are a number of ways that members could muck up the works, but Thune said leadership is still accessing “the mood of the conference” and will have a better sense of how long this will take in the upcoming days. 

With a time agreement, the Senate could move rapidly to pass the debt ceiling bill.

Without one, the regular Senate process would slip beyond the June 5 deadline. There is optimism they could find a way forward, but Thune was clear it could take some time to sort out over the next few days. 

GOP Sen. John Cornyn said he thought it was more likely than not that lawmakers would work the weekend. 

Cornyn wouldn’t commit to backing the bill saying he wanted to see what comes out of the House, but he was effusive in his praise for McCarthy saying it was a “heroic” effort at a compromise.

He downplayed the conservative pushback against the bill from the House Freedom Caucus. 

“The very definition of a compromise means there is going to be some people dissatisfied. You can always say ‘you could have done better,’” Cornyn said. “I’m waiting to see what the sausage looks like when it comes out of the House.”

Cornyn said he was also concerned about the defense number.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, one of the key negotiators of the debt limit deal, said he is confident that a majority of House Republicans will support the bill, despite pushback from conservatives. 

Asked if it would pass tomorrow, he replied, “Yes.” 

McHenry also defended House Speaker Kevin McCarthy against whispers from some House Freedom Caucus members about using the motion to vacate the chair.

“I think Speaker McCarthy has shown that he has enormous capacity to lead House Republicans. He got us to the table for negotiations,” McHenry said. “He stated clearly in the room to House Republicans and the media the purpose of us passing the bill was to get a negotiated outcome.”

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Tuesday criticized the debt limit deal reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“The best way to fix Washington’s spending addiction is to elect people who have not been part of the problem,” the former South Carolina governor said in a statement. “Adding at least $4 trillion to America’s $31 trillion national debt over two years without substantially cutting spending is no way to run our country’s fiscal affairs. Business as usual won’t get the job done.”

In a win for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie said Tuesday he expects to support a rule to set parameters for debate.

The powerful House Rules committee, which is meeting now on the debt limit bill, must still vote to adopt the rule, but with Massie’s anticipated support, it is now on track to do so — a hurdle that must be cleared before the bill can come to the House floor for a final vote.

“I want to see the rule (first) it’s not printed yet, it’s not been read, but I anticipate voting for this rule,” Massie said during the meeting.

Most members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus are furious about the bipartisan debt ceiling deal but struggling to come up with a strategy to block it. They remain divided on whether to try to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

At least one member of the group, Rep. Dan Bishop, has publicly threatened to force a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair over McCarthy’s deal-making, arguing he violated the promises he made to secure the gavel. Rep. Chip Roy also promised a “reckoning” and suggested they need to “re-look at how our leadership structure is in place. … we’re gonna have to rethink it all right.”

But during a conference call last night when the motion to vacate was briefly brought up, Chair Scott Perry dismissed the idea as “premature” and the conversation quickly moved on, according to a source on the call.

The source said that there have been private, “independent” discussions about the motion to vacate among some of McCarthy’s fiercest critics, but not among the Freedom Caucus as a whole, where there is far less appetite to go that route.

“We have only touched on it, and not really so much in Freedom Caucus, really among the 20 who stood in January,” Bishop confirmed to CNN.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a McCarthy ally and Freedom Caucus member, pushed back on efforts to target the speaker, delivering this message to her colleagues: “Don’t sink the ship, there’s no need to.”

Some more context: It only takes one member to force a floor vote on ousting McCarthy, but it would take five Republicans to actually succeed in removing him if all Democrats back the effort. And it’s also possible some Democrats could step in to save McCarthy under that scenario; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, however, declined to say whether they would.

Another GOP member said depending on how many Republicans end up voting against the deal, and how furious the base is back home, will dictate whether any conservatives follow through with the motion to vacate. 

McCarthy has expressed confidence that he’ll be able to pass the deal with the majority of his conference’s support and dismissed concerns that his speakership could be in jeopardy. 

For now, the Freedom Caucus — several members of which huddled in McCarthy’s office Tuesday afternoon — is focused on trying to rally opposition to the bill. But even many of them acknowledged the deal is likely to pass.

Last year, Congress approved $80 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service — but the bipartisan debt ceiling deal would claw some of that money back. 

If the deal passes Congress, the IRS may see only about $60 billion of those funds over a 10-year period. 

The money, which was originally included in the Inflation Reduction Act, is meant to support the agency in cracking down on tax cheats and providing better service to taxpayers. But Republicans have been critical of sending so much money to the IRS and skeptical that the investment won’t lead to increased audits of hardworking Americans.

Having a set allocation of money for the next decade, rather than waiting to see what Congress appropriates annually, is key in helping the IRS plan a massive overhaul to its operations, which desperately need modernizing. 

But the White House has said the cut included in the debt ceiling deal won’t fundamentally change what the IRS can do over the next few years.

So far, the agency has hired 5,000 new customer service agents with the new money, helping to significantly increase the amount of taxpayer calls it could answer during the 2023 tax filing season. The IRS also plans to launch a free filing tax pilot program next year.

“There’s plenty for the IRS to do. But $60 billion is plenty of money,” said Mark Everson, a former IRS commissioner and current vice chairman at the tax consulting firm alliantgroup. “I still think they’ll be able to significantly augment their enforcement activity.”

Biden administration officials have repeatedly said taxpayers earning less than $400,000 a year won’t face an increase in taxes due to the new funding, though there is some uncertainty about how exactly the IRS can ensure this.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Tuesday he is still looking at the debt ceiling agreement that was reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this weekend.

Durbin said one of his main concerns is funding for the National Institute of Health under the deal. 

“I’m worried about what happens to them under this budget deal. Is it a 1% solution or no solution? I’m not sure and I want to find out,” he said. 

Asked about the likelihood of reaching an agreement to get a vote on the agreement in the Senate before the June 5 deadline, Durbin noted that just one senator has the power to hold up a vote — but said there will be work done “behind the scenes” to try and get senators home by the weekend.  

“Several people will make pronouncements, then there’ll be discussion behind the scenes, and we’ll try to find that accommodation that gets everybody home, at least by the weekend,” he said. 

US stocks closed mixed on Tuesday — the first day of a short trading week — as investors weigh the likelihood of Congress passing a tentative plan this week to lift the country’s debt ceiling and avoid a potential default on government obligations. 

The Dow closed down 51 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 was flat. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%. 

President Joe Biden and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy reached a spending deal over the weekend to raise the debt limit. The House is expected to vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday. 

Wall Street appears hopeful that the plan will pass and some powerhouse banking CEO’s are urging Congress to accept the deal. The Financial Services Forum, a trade group whose members include Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, issued a statement Tuesday in support of the bipartisan agreement.

But investors will be watching the proceedings closely, as some lawmakers have expressed discontent with the deal. Republican and Democratic votes are both needed to pass the bill.  

Chipmaker Nvidia, meanwhile, briefly became the ninth company in history to achieve a market cap of $1 trillion. Shares of the stock reached a high of more than $419 per share in trading Tuesday, boosting the total value of the company into the trillion-dollar range before falling back below the threshold.  

The company, which makes chips used in artificial intelligence, saw its shares soar after it beat earnings expectations and posted strong guidance for the year ahead. Shares of the stock closed at $401, just short of the $404.86 needed to retain its trillion-dollar market cap. 

Tesla shares surged by 4.1% Tuesday as CEO Elon Musk made his first visit to China in about three years. Musk is expected to visit Tesla’s plant in Shanghai and meet with senior Chinese officials.  

Pipeline company Equitrans Midstream also spiked around 35% Tuesday because the debt ceiling agreement contains a surprising call to speed up the creation of a stalled natural gas pipeline called the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Equitrans is the lead developer of the pipeline project. 

In commodities news, US oil prices dropped below $70 a barrel Tuesday on concerns about whether the debt ceiling deal will make it through Congress and on reports of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia ahead of a key OPEC+ meeting. Crude slumped 4.4% to close at $69.46 a barrel, the lowest settlement price in nearly four weeks.  

Traders are also gearing up for the US jobs report for May, due out Friday. Investors will analyze the report for clues about whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its June meeting. The closely watched JOLTS report for April, which details job openings, is expected out on Wednesday. 

As stocks settle after the trading day, levels might change slightly. 

Several of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s sharpest GOP critics spent roughly an hour in the leader’s office and declined to comment about the meeting.

Reps. Chip Roy, Scott Perry and Michael Cloud were all seen leaving his office.

“You can imagine” how it went, Roy said.

More background: Roy has threatened McCarthy’s leadership role over the debt limit deal during an interview with Glenn Beck, saying that if the deal can’t be killed in the Rules Committee 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.  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he supports the debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Schumer said that he will try and get the bill passed in the Senate ahead of the June 5 X-date.  

“I support the bipartisan agreement that President Biden has produced with Speaker McCarthy, avoiding default is an absolute imperative,” Schumer said in his opening remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

The majority leader said that Senators should be ready to “act with urgency,” once the bill is passed in the House.

“When this bill arrives in the Senate, it is my plan to bring it to the floor as quickly as possible for consideration. Senators must be prepared to act with urgency to send a final product to the President’s desk for the June 5 deadline,” Schumer said. 

Schumer added, “Nobody gets everything they wanted. But this bill is the responsible, prudent and necessary way forward.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to say how many Democrats he expects to back the debt ceiling deal, but said Republicans must keep their promise to put up 150 votes. 

“My expectation is that House Republicans will keep their commitment to produce at least two thirds of their conference – at least 150 votes,” he told reporters. “Democrats are committed to making sure that we do our part and avoid a default.”

When pressed by CNN on whether Democrats would bail out McCarthy if conservatives trigger a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, Jeffries declined to say. 

“That’s premature,” he said. “Right now, we’re focused on making sure that we avoid a catastrophic default, that we don’t allow these extreme MAGA Republicans to crash the economy and trigger a job-killing recession.”

Jeffries was also asked whether Democrats would step in to help advance the bill out of the House Rules Committee if needed, to which he said he does not expect there to be “any issues” getting the bill to the floor. 

The House Minority leader acknowledged they still have work to do in selling the deal to his caucus, particularly among progressives, saying, “we will continue to have a family conversation throughout the day, later on this evening and tomorrow” and that “the White House has engaged in an incredible amount of activity to communicate with all aspects of the House Democratic Caucus”

Some context. Jeffries’ call for House Republicans to deliver at least 150 debt ceiling votes implies that Democrats believe they can carry the rest (which would be around 70 members) to get the deal over the finish line.

The powerful House Rules Committee is now meeting to decide whether to advance the new debt ceiling legislation to a full floor vote.

The panel must adopt a rule to set parameters for debate – a hurdle that needs to be cleared before a final House vote can take place. Some of the bill’s loudest conservative critics sit on the panel and pressure is growing on a key Republican swing vote as leadership works to advance the deal to a final floor vote on Wednesday.

One of those critics – GOP Rep Chip Roy – made the strongest threat yet to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s gavel during an interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck, saying if the deal can’t be killed in the Rules Committee or on the floor: “Then we’re going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again.”

The comments were confirmed to CNN through his spokesperson.

McCarthy said later on Tuesday he is not concerned about losing his speakership over the debt ceiling deal.

The timeframe to get the bill passed through both chambers of Congress and signed into law is extremely tight. The Treasury Department has said it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time as soon as June 5.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faced sharp criticism from his party’s right flank over agreeing to a debt limit suspension until January 2025.

A number of conservatives had hoped for a shorter debt limit hike in order to give them another chance to extract concessions from the White House early next year.

Asked why he agreed to suspend the debt limit til 2025, McCarthy responded with a question: “Do you think we’d be stronger at that time period to have a debt ceiling fight?”

US oil prices dropped below $70 a barrel Tuesday amid concerns about whether the debt ceiling deal will make it through Congress.

Crude oil slumped 4.4% to close at $69.46 a barrel, the lowest settlement price in nearly four weeks.

The selloff marks one of the worst days of the year for the oil market and could help keep a lid on pump prices. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is down by about $1 from a year ago.

Oil market veterans blamed Tuesday’s decline in part on worries about whether conservatives in the House of Representatives will try to block the bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling forged over the weekend by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“It’s not a layup that the debt deal is going to get done. That’s spooking the market, no doubt about that,” said Robert Yawger, vice president of energy futures at Mizuho Securities.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, also pointed to “growing skepticism” about the debt ceiling agreement. He said the risk of failing to raise the borrowing limit could set off a “deep recession” that curbs demand for oil.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the government will not have enough funds to meet all of the nation’s obligations if Congress does not address the debt ceiling by June 5.

Brent crude, the world benchmark, dropped by more than 4%, slipping below $74 a barrel.  

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he is not concerned about losing his speakership over this debt ceiling deal.

He said he has reached out to GOP Rep. Chip Roy via text and will see him soon.

“Everybody can have their opinion but explain to me what in the bill are they opposed to. They [are] opposed to work requirements? They opposed to cutting $2.1 trillion? I am not sure what people are opposed to in the bill,” he said.

McCarthy said, “You can talk to Thomas” when asked if Rep. Thomas Massie would vote in favor to advance the debt limit bill in the House Rules Committee.

Asked if he was confident he would have the Republican votes he needs in rules, McCarthy said, “Yes.”

Pressed on if he would keep his speakership, McCarthy said, “You guys ask me all the time. I’m still standing.” “You know what. Keep underestimating me. You’ll go far that way.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized the debt limit deal struck between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for making “small reforms” and not including more for defense spending. However, Pence stopped short of saying whether he believes Congress should vote for or against the bill. 

“The United States is staring down a debt crisis over the next 25 years that’s driven by entitlements, and nobody in Washington, D.C., wants to talk about it,” he said in a statement released Tuesday. “Congress’ debt limit deal doesn’t just kick the can down the road, it uses Washington smoke and mirror games to make small reforms while weakening our military at a time of increasing threats from foreign adversaries.”
“It’s time to be honest with the American people and get everybody to the table to restore fiscal integrity to our nation. By ignoring the drivers of our national debt and avoiding honest conversations with the American people, President Biden and the Washington establishment continue to pile the burden of debt onto the backs of our grandchildren, and the American people deserve better,” he added. 

The deal reached over the weekend would increase the debt limit for two years in exchange for a cap on non-defense spending, while defense spending would match Biden’s request for $886 billion. 

All House Republicans are being encouraged to attend tonight’s House GOP news conference in support of the debt ceiling deal, according to a copy of the internal notice that went to members. 

Leaders are trying to rally support and counter the brewing opposition on the right, including of the House Freedom Caucus, which held its own news conference earlier today railing against the deal.

The news conference is scheduled for Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET, according to the notice.

Rep. Dan Bishop, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, signaled that conservatives could target Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s gavel if the debt limit bill is approved by the chamber. 

It takes just one member to call for a vote-seeking McCarthy’s ouster, and he would need 218 votes to retain the gavel.

Bishop and other conservatives said their primary focus is trying to stop the debt limit bill. If it passes, they said, they would begin to plan other courses of action and potentially target the speaker.

On Tuesday, the conservative Republican from North Carolina accused McCarthy of lying about the bill and said he had lost confidence in the speaker. He raised his hand at today’s Freedom Caucus news conference when asked if anyone was willing to force a vote to oust the speaker.

“None. Zero,” Bishop told CNN when asked if he had confidence in the speaker. “What basis is there for confidence?”

“You cannot forfeit the tool of Republican unity,” he said. “It was not necessary to do. … If the negotiations were going in a path that was untenable, take a break, get us all back to Washington, or at least representatives from each part of the conference, and talk it through. There are a lot of other things that could have been done. But they didn’t do that because they didn’t want to do it.”

“Yes, he’s lying,” Bishop said of McCarthy, citing provisions in the bill that he says don’t go as far as the speaker claims, such as pulling back on IRS funding and reining in administration regulatory actions.

“But the bill is chock full of things that are that are cosmetic and artificial that have the same exact effect,” he added.

Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and House Rules Committee, told CNN that Republicans will have to “rethink” their leadership team if the bill is approved.

“What I said was we got to re-look at how our leadership structure is in place … because we can’t do what we’re doing right now,” Roy said. He added that the conference was a success for five months, but “this was a mistake, we abandoned the structure that was making us successful. So we’re gonna have to rethink it all right.”

Asked how they would respond if the bill moves forward without the backing of all nine Republicans on the committee, Roy said: “We will see. I’m not gonna go down that road right now, other than just to point out that a general part of the agreement in general terms in January was that we would have unanimous support when we come out of the rules committee.”

The Financial Services Forum, a trade group whose members include Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, issued a statement Tuesday praising the efforts of President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and urging Congress to adopt the agreement.

“Responsible and timely action will preserve the full faith and credit of the United States and our nation’s important position of global economic leadership,” Financial Services Forum CEO Kevin Fromer said in the statement. 

Earlier this week, other leading business groups praised Biden and McCarthy for forging a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling, and they are calling for Congress to pass the legislation before the government suffers a devastating default.

“With the US at risk of defaulting in less than 10 days, there is no time to spare. We urge members of Congress to give the legislation their strong support,” Josh Bolten, the CEO of the Business Roundtable and former chief of staff to President George W. Bush, said in a statement on Sunday.

Suzanne Clark, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a separate statement that by reaching a compromise, Biden and congressional leaders have “shown they can come together on a bipartisan basis and act in the best interests of our country.”

The National Association of Manufacturers, the largest manufacturing trade group in the nation, also congratulated Biden, McCarthy and their lawmakers for reaching an agreement.

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.

“Look, we always expected that there would be certain pockets of opposition to this deal, but overall, it’s a good deal, it’s a fair deal, and we’re confident that it will get to the president’s desk,” Ramamurti told CNN’s Kate Bolduan in an interview.

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:

“At the highest level, USDC is designed to always be redeemed at $1. The way that the regulatory guidance around this is is set up, and our own self imposed approach to this, has been to hold the reserves in the the most safe, most liquid dollar assets in the world — so historically 80% of USDC reserves had been in short term US government Treasury bonds, so 90-day or less Treasury bonds. When people talk about the value of the dollar, that’s generally the anchor point, short duration Treasury bills.
Months ago, when this X date was established, we faced a situation where, in theory, if you’re holding Treasury bills that mature after May 31, and the government can’t pay them, and they’re not able to pay their debt, the dollar itself would de-peg because short term Treasury bonds are the reference point for cash and collateral in the broader financial system. So, we took measures to proactively ensure that we held no T-bills that matured beyond May 31.”

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.

“Now, is there going to be Republicans who won’t vote for it? Sure. Would there be Democrats that don’t vote for it? Sure. Will there be enough to pass it? I absolutely think so,” Manchin said.

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.

Republican leaders and President Joe Biden made some progress in reaching a deal to avert a US default over the holiday weekend — but until the government is able to issue more debt to pay its bills, US consumers are feeling nervous about the economy’s future.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which measures Americans’ attitudes toward the economy and the job market, fell in May to 102.3, down from an upwardly revised 103.7 in the prior month.

“Consumer confidence declined in May as consumers’ view of current conditions became somewhat less upbeat while their expectations remained gloomy,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics at the Conference Board, in a news release. “While consumer confidence has fallen across all age and income categories over the past three months, May’s decline reflects a particularly notable worsening in the outlook among consumers over 55 years of age.”

A US default would spark an economic disaster, weighing heavily on consumers’ attitudes as they eventually pull back on their spending, which drives two-thirds of the US economy.

The debt ceiling drama engulfing Washington has created uncertainty in the housing market, resulting in higher mortgage rates, says real estate CEO Bess Freedman.

“The standoff has created such uncertainty, and the rates ticked up. And I think economists were saying something like if they didn’t reach a deal that rates would go up as much as two points and we’re already in an unsteady sort of housing market,” Freedman told CNN’s chief business correspondent Christine Romans on Tuesday.

Freedman, the CEO of Brown, Harris, and Stevens, says the housing market is “recalibrating” despite economic headwinds, describing it as “not horrible” but nothing like the year 2021 when the market was flourishing.

“We’re in a decent housing market, and hopefully, we reach a deal, and the debt ceiling gets passed, and consumers feel a little bit at ease that we have money, and we can spend and do things.”

Freedman says higher mortgage rates have also forced Americans to think twice about selling their homes.

“Sellers are sort of holding off and not wanting to sell right now because if they sell and they have to get a new market, the rate will be almost double,” Freedman told Romans. “Rates have ticked up, and if they go up even more, that will be a challenge for people who want to buy.”

US markets opened mostly higher on Tuesday morning, the first trading day of a shortened week, after President Joe Biden and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy reached a deal at the weekend to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default.

Here’s how the markets looked at Tuesday’s US opening:

Congress is expected to vote on the debt ceiling bill as soon as Wednesday and Wall Street appears hopeful that the plan will pass. Still, investors will closely watch the House Rules Committee today, which is scheduled to consider the bill today ahead of a larger vote, for any signs of contention.

The vote and agreement come just before the fast-approaching X-date, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s June 5 deadline for the United States to raise the debt ceiling or risk defaulting on its obligations.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy helped secure a debt limit deal — but now he has to secure its passage in the House, with little room for error.

McCarthy faces a test on Tuesday when House lawmakers return to Washington and a powerful committee takes up the bill to suspend the debt limit through January 1, 2025. Some of the bill’s loudest conservative critics sit on the panel, and pressure is growing on a key Republican swing vote as leadership works to advance the deal to a final floor vote on Wednesday.

The timeframe to get the bill passed through both chambers of Congress and signed into law is extremely tight. Lawmakers are racing the clock to avert a catastrophic default ahead of June 5, the day the Treasury Department has said it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time.

House Republican leadership will have the chance to whip votes and lean on holdouts when members return. And in a positive sign for the bill’s prospects in the House, a wide range of members on both sides of the aisle – many of them moderates – appear poised to coalesce behind the deal to avert default.

The powerful House Rules committee will meet Tuesday afternoon on the debt limit bill. The panel must adopt a rule to set parameters for debate – a hurdle that needs to be cleared before a final House vote can take place.

To win the speakership, McCarthy agreed to name three conservative hardliners – Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky – to the committee, a major concession since usually the panel is stacked with close allies of the leadership.

Both Roy and Norman have emerged as leading critics of the bipartisan debt limit bill.

Massie has so far been mum about how he plans to handle the rule vote in committee. If Massie were to join Roy and Norman and vote against the rule at Tuesday’s meeting, he could effectively stall the measure in committee. But in January, Massie told CNN he was reluctant to vote against rules to stop bills in their tracks.

Keep reading here and see below the next key steps the bill must go through:

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy convinced themselves of a compromise deal to slow federal spending and replenish the near-empty treasury with borrowed cash.

Now they have the even harder task of trying to convince everyone else to swallow what one Republican, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, described as a “turd sandwich.”

Frustrated hardline Republican spending hawks like Roy believe McCarthy secretly agreed to give them the power to stop any legislation they don’t like from getting a vote on the House floor. McCarthy’s allies have a different recollection.

The hardliners spent Memorial Day picking apart the 99-page text of the debt ceiling bill line by line and openly wondering how McCarthy could not get more concessions and cuts than two years of caps on non-defense discretionary spending in exchange for taking the debt ceiling off the negotiating table for two years.

And the concerns extend to the opposite end of the political spectrum, with liberal House Democrats frustrated with Biden’s dealmaking. But the same arguments Biden could use to mollify progressives will turn off Republicans – underscoring the challenges that Washington’s top negotiators face in selling this compromise to their respective parties’ far-left and far-right flanks.

Read more about the deal’s details here.

Texas Rep. Chip Roy accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday of cutting a deal during the January speaker’s race that could complicate their efforts to pass the debt ceiling bill this week.

But McCarthy’s allies quickly refuted the Texas Republican, underscoring the tension ahead of a key meeting of the House Rules Committee on Tuesday — and putting new pressure on a conservative holdout, Rep. Thomas Massie — who has yet to take a position on the plan.

Roy argued that McCarthy cut a hand-shake deal in January that all nine Republicans on the powerful panel must agree to move any legislation forward, otherwise, bills could not be considered by the full House for majority approval.

“A reminder that during speaker negotiations to build the coalition, that it was explicit both that nothing would pass Rules Committee without AT LEAST 7 GOP votes — AND that the Committee would not allow reporting out rules without unanimous Republican votes,” Roy tweeted.

Senior GOP sources acknowledged that there was an agreement for seven Republican members to agree to move forward in order to advance a bill to the floor, but they flatly dispute that there was a deal for all nine to sign off for legislation to advance.

“I have not heard that before. If those conversations took place, the rest of the conference was unaware of them,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota. “And frankly, I doubt them.”

The dispute is significant because Roy sits on the committee — which is divided between nine Republicans and four Democrats — as does GOP Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina. Both men have emerged as leading foes of the bipartisan debt limit bill.

A third conservative who sits on the panel — Massie —has been mum about how he plans to handle the rule vote in committee. McCarthy agreed to name all three men to the position as part of his promises during his win over 15 ballots to give more power to conservatives on committees.

If Massie were to join Roy and Norman and vote against the rule at Tuesday’s meeting, he could effectively stall the measure in committee.

But in January, Massie told CNN he was reluctant to vote against rules to stop bills in their tracks.

“I would be reluctant to try to use the rules committee to achieve a legislative outcome, particularly if it doesn’t represent a large majority of our caucus,” Massie said at the time. “So I don’t ever intend to use my position on there to like, hold somebody hostage — or hold legislation hostage.”

Massie’s office has declined to comment on how he may vote on Tuesday, and neither Roy nor the speaker’s office responded to requests for comments on the Texan’s assertion.

But Republicans close to McCarthy refuted the notion that bills could only advance with majority support.

Republicans believe they are pushing toward 150 Republican votes or more on the debt limit bill, two sources told CNN Monday. 

That’s more than a majority of the Republican conference, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been promising for days he could get on this bill. 

Republican leaders have been pitching their members aggressively that the deal reached makes changes to future spending including; clawing back billions in unspent Covid funds, pulling back on Democratic IRS spending and imposing new work requirements on social safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are formally known..

Allies of McCarthy and members of the whip team have been making the case that the options are default or a once-in-a-lifetime bill to change the trajectory of federal spending. That message appears to be resonating with many members.