On Tuesday, Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, warned that he may try to remove Kevin McCarthy from his position as House speaker if Republicans fail to halt the debt deal in committee.
During an interview with Glenn Beck on “BlazeTV” on Tuesday morning, Roy criticized the debt limit deal that McCarthy, a Republican from California, made with the White House over the weekend. Roy believed that this deal betrayed the power-sharing arrangement that was established. This arrangement included promises made by McCarthy to the HFC, which helped McCarthy secure the votes needed to become Speaker of the House after a 15-round voting battle in January.
According to Roy, if the deal goes through, the U.S. will have to incur at least 4 trillion dollars of additional debt with no considerable decreases in spending.
Why I will oppose the #DebtCeiling “deal.” It’s not a good deal. Some $4 Trillion in debt for – at best – a two year spending freeze and no serious substantive policy reforms. #NoDeal pic.twitter.com/C73fjSA2Fr
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) May 29, 2023
Roy said that if the deal is passed by the House Rules Committee today, “Then we’re going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again.”
During his campaign to become the Speaker, McCarthy agreed to reinstate a rule favored by the HFC which allows any member to initiate a vote to remove the sitting Speaker. Roy is among a group of at least 10 House Republicans who plan to vote against the agreement between McCarthy and Biden.
McCarthy defended the deal in a weekend interview on Fox News Sunday, saying, “Maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction that no one thought that we would be able to today.”
“I’ll debate this bill with anybody,” he continued. “Is it everything I wanted? No, because we don’t control all of it. But it is the biggest rescission in history. It is the biggest cut Congress has ever voted for in that process.”
The agreement involves taking back some of the COVID-19 pandemic funds that haven’t been used and reducing the funding that was given to the IRS in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. It also includes postponing the debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election.