Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said her group has a list of concessions they want from Republicans in exchange for support for the rule. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, cut back saying “less hurtful to working people” should be part of the Democrats’ negotiating terms.
Jayapal and Casar said they would vote against the legislation, along with most members of the Progressive Caucus.
Budget commission
While GOP leaders were still working to secure votes for the debt limit measure, McCarthy floated a separate plan to create a bipartisan commission to study the federal budget and recommend more suggestions to reduce deficiencies.
The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that at most, the measure could cut deficits by $2.1 trillion over a decade. That’s less than half of what the initial House GOP-backed debt limit package would achieve.
Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, who along with McHenry helped lead the debt limit negotiations for McCarthy, acknowledged that those fiscal commissions have had a mixed record over the years. But he added that the debt limit discussions show how complex the pressure to cut spending is from annual discretionary spending.
