Yet far-right lawmakers are demanding a renegotiation, insisting on substantial cuts to everything but defense and veterans aid — the things they did not get earlier this year — and threatening a government shutdown if they do not get their way.
Mr. McCarthy does not have to bow to these lawmakers’ demands. He can stick to the previous agreement, passing a budget with some votes from House Democrats, and avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown.
Instead, Mr. McCarthy has tried to get his far right on side, proposing a budget that would slash funding for everything other than defense or veterans by 8 percent. That means cuts to education, transportation, national parks, public health and even law enforcement, among other popular and widely used programs. The bill would fund the government only through October, meaning there would be another hostage-like situation over the 2024 budget again this fall — during which the new, lower spending levels would no doubt be the basis for further demands.
When House Republicans pushed such cuts earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House balked. They will not agree to them now. Whatever Mr. McCarthy is doing, it’s not a serious effort to address this reality.
In contrast, the deal Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Biden worked out in May is fair and reasonable: It boosts funding for defense and veterans while essentially flat-funding the rest of the federal government for two years. It will produce roughly $180 billion in savings for those two years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The Freedom Caucus tries to portray its latest maneuvering as an attempt to restore fiscal prudence as the national debt tops $33 trillion. It’s not. Tackling the nation’s debt burden requires putting everything on the table: tax hikes, budget cuts, and reforms to Social Security and Medicare. So far, House Republicans refuse to do that — or even launch a bipartisan commission to engage in big, meaningful discussions. The GOP was also silent on this issue during President Donald Trump’s tenure, when the budget expanded rapidly.
House Republicans might calculate that forcing a shutdown would show their constituents that they are fighting the Democrats and, once ended on what would have to be a bipartisan basis, do little ultimate harm to the country. This is wrong. A shutdown would shake confidence in U.S. leadership at home and abroad at a critical time. It would also reinforce why Fitch recently downgraded U.S. debt: Washington’s ongoing political brinkmanship that doesn’t tackle the drivers of the nation’s fiscal problems.
The public needs to see this legislative impasse for what it is: Members of the House Freedom Caucus are demanding a restructuring of a fair bipartisan compromise, and the speaker is accommodating them. If there isn’t movement soon, Mr. McCarthy needs to find votes across the aisle to make up for the holdouts in his caucus.
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