Current Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is probably feeling energized after he earned some rather high praise from two members of his own caucus who had originally not been on board with him taking over the position within the chamber. Hey, if you’re doing good work, you should be praised, right? That’s good motivation to keep up the excellent work. And right now, we need all of the good men and women occupying important positions within our government to not get discouraged and give up the fight.
“Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL) and Andy Biggs (AZ) praised McCarthy’s tenure as Speaker so far. Their comments are especially noteworthy, considering the source: Gaetz was one of the most vociferous opponents of McCarthy’s bid for the Speakership, and one of the final six holdouts who voted present during the 15th ballot; Biggs mounted his own bid for Speakership to contest McCarthy,” the Daily Wire reported.
“I’d give him an ‘A,’” Gaetz said to CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju, according to a tweet that was posted by the reporter. “I don’t give it lightly. I think he’s done a good job.”
“I think he’s doing better than expected,” Biggs went on to add.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a one-time fierce critic of McCarthy’s, praised his job performance so far. “I’d give him an ‘A,’” he told me. “I don't give it lightly. I think he's done a good job.”
Andy Biggs, who ran against McCarthy: “I think he's doing better than expected,” he said— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 27, 2023
The praise that McCarthy received from both Biggs and Gaetz comes a day after they rejected the Speaker’s plan to temporarily raise the debt ceiling. The pair joined along with Reps. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican and Ken Buck, a Republican hailing from Colorado, in casting votes against the “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023,” which would have suspended the debt limit until it goes up by $1.5 trillion, or until the date of March 31, 2024, whichever of the two hits first, in exchange for a plethora of spending cuts.
“As our nation is careening into a $32 trillion debt, Congress shouldn’t be making final changes at 2 a.m. — the morning of the vote — to legislation raising the debt limit $1.5 trillion,” Gaetz’s office went on to say in a recently published statement.
“While I applaud the work of my Republican colleagues to demand better energy policy, regulatory reform, welfare-to-work requirements and less spending, a troubling fact remains. This plan will increase America’s debt by $16 trillion over the next ten years,” he continued. “Gaslighting nearly $50 trillion in debt to America is something my [conscience] cannot abide at this time.”
Biggs went on to place blame on the bill for not cutting the national debt and not being aggressive enough in spending. He stated that federal spending, at the minimum, should be returned to the fiscal year 2019, which is where things were right before the coronavirus pandemic hit, as opposed to turn things back to just last year, as the legislation proposes.
“Our national debt is a top national security threat. I have never voted to raise the debt ceiling in my time in Congress – even while President Trump was in the Oval Office — and didn’t today for the same reasons,” Biggs went on to say in a statement of his own. “We owe the American people and our future generations sound and responsible fiscal policy. Increasing the national debt to ‘only’ $47 trillion over ten years — an increase of over $14 trillion from today — is misguided and perpetuates Washington’s spending problem.”
Despite facing some serious opposition from within his own political party, McCarthy has managed to pull in support for his plan from several Democrats, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who called for the Biden administration to sit down and chat with McCarthy about the debt limit.
“America is facing a historic economic crisis brought on by an abject failure to address our exploding national debt, chronic inflation, a looming recession, and the more immediate need to raise the debt ceiling,” Manchin said in a statement put out a week ago. “Our elected leaders must stop with the political games, work together and negotiate a compromise. Instead, it has been more than 78 days since President Biden last met with Speaker McCarthy. This signals a deficiency of leadership, and it must change. The fact is we are long past time for our elected leaders to sit down and discuss how to solve this impending debt ceiling crisis.”
"*" indicates required fields
