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As the White House unveiled its budget plan last week, it was accompanied by a request: President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats practically begged House Republicans to present an alternative. So far, those appeals have been ignored.
By way of an excuse, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters last week, “We were going to do the budget in April, but unfortunately the president’s so late with his budget it delays ours.” That didn’t make any sense at all. As a Washington Post report explained, “It’s unclear why the president’s budget would delay the Republican version by so long — they are two separate documents put together by competing parties.”
The truth is hardly a secret: McCarthy promised to put together a budget that eliminates the deficit within 10 years without touching social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. GOP leaders now realize that this isn’t possible in a politically palatable way that their members will support, so their blueprint remains a work in progress.
The House Freedom Caucus, however, doesn’t much care about what’s politically palatable. NBC News reported late last week:
The Freedom Caucus, chaired by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., proposed nixing Biden’s $400 billion in student debt relief; rescinding unspent Covid-19 funds; cutting the climate change funding and $80 billion for added IRS enforcement under the Inflation Reduction Act; and capping discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for a decade.
For good measure, let’s also note that the same plan would make it more difficult for low-income Americans to qualify for Medicaid, while also demanding new policies to make oil drilling easier.
Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who chairs the Freedom Caucus, estimated that the faction’s plan would save about $3 trillion over a decade. That might be true, though there’s been no official tally from the Congressional Budget Office.
The proposal received a quick endorsement from Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who’s making no effort to move in a mainstream direction ahead of his re-election campaign next year.
At face value, this might not seem especially notable. “Far-right members unveil unrealistic far-right plan” isn’t the sort of headline that captures imaginations. But there’s a larger significance to this that’s worth appreciating.
The House Freedom Caucus didn’t just unveil this blueprint to contribute to a conversation about budget policy. Rather, members of Congress’ most right-wing faction unveiled this plan as their debt ceiling hostage note: If Democrats agree to pass all of these cuts, then the Freedom Caucus will “consider“ extending the nation’s borrowing authority and preventing a catastrophic default.
How gracious of them.
The problem is not that this plan might somehow pass. It obviously will not: Many House Republicans would vote against it — especially those who are eyeing higher offices — and the blueprint would get zero support from congressional Democrats and the White House.
Indeed, Biden treated the Freedom Caucus’ proposal like a pinata on Friday, condemning the misguided “values” behind it.
The larger question is what happens once the plan is rejected — and Freedom Caucus members say that they won’t consider a debt ceiling increase because their demands have gone unheeded.
At that point, McCarthy faces a challenge for which there is no obvious solution. He’s already said the nation can’t default, which means he’ll have to pass a debt ceiling bill that can pass the Senate and get the president’s signature before the deadline. If the House speaker can’t satisfy the Freedom Caucus, will he go to House Democrats, hat in hand, seeking their votes? If he does, will his right-wing flank take advantage of the motion-to-vacate-the-chair rules and try to oust him?
This mess is just getting started, and if McCarthy isn’t feeling nervous about the road ahead, he’s not paying close enough attention.