I’m a little late to the party on this. I was suffering from two separate “illnesses” of late. One involved several days of a tough a physical mystery challenge that seems to be waning finally. While I was undergoing this ordeal, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was rolling over on the most recent and important debt limit deal ever.
It was the cave-in of all time. You might say McCarthy blinked. You could say he capitulated to Joe Biden. He betrayed most of his fellow Republicans. He transformed a winning hand into a total victory for Democrats.
It’s now being called the Biden-McCarthy debt deal.
But it means much more than that.
McCarthy had Biden and the Democrats on the ropes. The intent was, supposedly, to force Biden and the Democrats to curb their reckless, dangerous spending plans after two years to give the American people some relief from inflation and, more to the point, provide the leadership to help save the nation.
What did McCarthy do? He squandered it. He set the nation back with his last minute, unspoken plan to settle for nothing – a sellout that kicked the can down the road for Biden’s last year and a half (hopefully) and which depends on the Democrats to carry it out.
This was another sellout in a long line of sellouts on debt deals by Republicans; we’ve seen it for years. The Dems and Biden ate McCarthy’s lunch for this latest boondoggle.
These are the headlines. Read them and weep.
* The New York Times: “Biden’s Debt Deal Strategy: Win in the Fine Print: The president and his negotiators believe they worked out a deal that allowed Republicans to claim big spending cuts even as the reality was far more modest.”
* The Associated Press: “House OKs debt ceiling bill to avoid default, sends Biden-McCarthy deal to Senate.”
* Politico: “How Manchin and Sinema quietly steered the McCarthy-Biden debt deal.”
* CBS News: “Biden praises bipartisan deal to raise debt ceiling.”
Once again, the Deep State pulled a rabbit out of a hat. The uni-party won. Instead of an end to radical spending, we got more.
Even Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan went for it, with commentator Steve Bannon calling for both to be primaried next year. While I disagree with that, it shows how McCarthy has fractured his party.
The House of Representatives voted 314-117 in favor of the deal, with a majority of Dems supporting it.
Bannon, one the architects of Donald Trump’s amazing victories in 2016, said, “The 149 must be held accountable for the most Anti-MAGA vote in history.” That was the grim final vote cast by Republicans. They should all be shamed.
What McCarthy did was break his promise to his constituency. He never told them what he was doing. Republicans were hamstrung by their own leadership. They never had a chance to reason with him – to tell him it was a colossal mistake. Stick with the original plan. Don’t take Biden’s bait. Don’t divide your caucus. Don’t give victory to the Dems – which is exactly what he did.
It appears that threats against McCarthy’s speakership won’t gain real traction, with two-thirds of the GOP conference backing the bad deal Wednesday.
“We didn’t do it by taking the easy route,” McCarthy said in a celebratory post-vote press conference. “It wasn’t an easy fight, I had people on both sides upset. I think we did pretty damn good for the American people.”
In reality, it was a terrible deal for the American people – a catastrophe, one expected by the likes of former GOP speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
There was something ominous about the way McCarthy mused that 2024 was going to be a bad time for Republicans. He said that was why he didn’t want to carry a vote into next year as the original plan called for. What did he mean by that? He never explained. Why give up on the real savings as he promised? It makes no sense.
This betrayal by McCarthy, this cataclysmic failure, must be repudiated. But when? Are we happy with the speaker of the House actually being Rep. Hakeem Jeffries? McCarthy was never a war-time consigliere – and it showed in his first big showdown.
McCarthy must go.
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
