McCarthy’s triumph on debt ceiling vote won’t do anything to solve the crisis

Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed his toughest test yet by buying off holdout Republicans and squeezing a bill with huge spending cuts through the House on Wednesday.

But the price of proving his authority with a radical GOP conference was pushing the nation closer to a debt default cliff edge in an increasingly alarming showdown with President Joe Biden.

The bill, which raises the debt ceiling for a year in return for spending cuts, was designed to hike pressure on Biden, who is refusing to accept Republican conditions that would effectively gut his domestic agenda. Unless the debt ceiling is lifted by the summer, the economy could crash.

The speaker, speaking with noticeable scorn for Biden, quickly seized on the narrow vote trying to blame the president for any subsequent debt default. “Now, the president can no longer put this economy in jeopardy. We have lifted the debt limit, we have done our job, we are the only body that passed anything,” McCarthy said.

But Biden, who launched his reelection campaign the day before, had previously made clear Wednesday that he wasn’t changing his position, saying that while he was willing to talk with McCarthy on longer-term fiscal issues, lifting the debt limit – a step only Congress can take – was “non-negotiable.” The White House insists that Republicans are holding the economy hostage and slashing programs that hurt the American people.

A failure to pass the measure would have further dented McCarthy’s speakership after a farcical 15 rounds of voting that the Californian needed to win his dream job in January. But after days of intense bargaining with rebel lawmakers, he proved he can at least wield his tiny majority and unify his conference after the measure passed 217-215. Four Republicans – the maximum number that could defect for the bill to pass – voted against the measure.

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