Last week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus posed a formal ask to its members: were there any proposals they could accept included in the list of GOP demands in exchange for raising the debt ceiling?
The overwhelming consensus: The GOP demands were too much to stomach.
Instead, they wanted President Joe Biden to engage in legally murky waters to employ the 14th Amendment and unilaterally avoid default, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat and the CPC chairwoman, promptly informed the White House.
And then she publicly offered this warning.
“I think there would be a huge backlash from our entire House Democratic Caucus, certainly the progressives, but also in the streets,” Jayapal told CNN of a potential “bad deal.”
On the other end of the ideological spectrum, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus took an official position calling for an end to bipartisan talks and made clear they can’t accept anything less than the conservative debt ceiling proposal that Republicans already passed in the House.
Members on the right are also warning House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of backlash if he agrees to a deal that is opposed by a majority of House Republicans and has to rely on Democrats to get it over the finish line.
“Yes,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican and member of the House Freedom Caucus, when asked if it would be a problem if more than half of the 222 House Republicans oppose any bipartisan deal reached with the White House.
“If the majority of the majority is not happy, would Nancy Pelosi ever do that? Nope,” Donalds said, referring to the former Democratic speaker.
The growing pressure from the left and right flanks to not cave in the high-stakes debt ceiling negotiations – or in some cases, not cut a deal at all…
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