Senate passes debt ceiling bill, but North Carolina senators remain divided
North Carolina’s senators remained divided Thursday on extending the country’s debt ceiling as the U.S. Senate passed a bill to extend it through Jan. 1, 2025.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, voted in favor of the bill, while Sen. Ted Budd, a freshman Republican from Davie County, voted against it.
“While far from perfect, this is the best deal conservatives could have hoped for given the reality that Democrats control the White House and Senate,” Tillis said in a news release. “This deal finally puts an end to the Democrats’ reckless tax-and-spending spree by cutting spending by a record $1.5 trillion, moving more Americans from welfare to the workforce, and shutting down President Biden’s planned $5 trillion tax hike.”
He said it was a better outcome than the alternative, which would have included defaulting for the first time in the country’s history, with an outcome that he described as a decimated economy, millions in job losses and a debt crisis far worse than it currently is.
Budd announced Thursday morning he would vote against the bill, but tried to push a last-minute amendment to rescind even more COVID relief funds than is already earmarked in the bill. His amendment failed.
After final passage, the bill now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature, with just three days left before the country runs out of money to pay off its debts.
What is in the bill?
The bill is an attempt by House Republicans and President Joe Biden to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts. The House passed the bill Wednesday night 314-117, with bipartisan support.
“Throughout this process, I have said that we should only raise the debt ceiling if we fix Washington’s spending addiction,” Budd said in a news release. “Unfortunately, this bill fails to do that.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers that the country would breach the debt limit on June 5. Economists predict that would be catastrophic for the country.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Lake Norman-area Republican, became integral in negotiating a bill with Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
On Saturday, they emerged with a plan that includes:
▪ Extending the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025
▪ Rescinding unspent COVID relief funds
▪ Cutting $21.4 billion in funding to the IRS
▪ Increasing work requirements to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called Food Stamps
▪ Forcing student loan borrowers to start repayment at the end of August
Bishop only NC representative to vote ‘no’
From North Carolina’s delegation, only Rep. Dan Bishop, a Charlotte Republican, voted against the bill in the House. Following Wednesday night’s vote, Bishop pinned a tweet to the top of his social media account voicing his displeasure with his party.
“This is what it looks like when the uniparty cartel sells out the American people,” Bishop wrote.
Bishop told reporters he saw the bill as a betrayal toward Republicans who helped elect McCarthy as House speaker because it failed to include requests from the House Freedom Caucus, the far-right group of representatives that includes Bishop.
Bishop has gone as far as calling for McCarthy to be ousted from his leadership position over the bill.
Opposition
Senators began considering the bill Thursday afternoon and went through a dozen amendments with lawmakers limiting each vote to 10 minutes or less. Just before 11 p.m. the bill passed.
Budd came out earlier than most senators in opposition to the bill, letting his position be known Thursday morning. Like Bishop, Budd, a former Congress member, was a member of the House Freedom Caucus, until being sworn in as a senator in January.
Budd said in a written statement that he would vote against the bill because it normalizes pandemic-era spending levels, OKs trillions more and retains the vast majority of “President Biden’s IRS expansion.”
“While I respect Speaker McCarthy’s efforts to force President Biden to the negotiating table, this final product does not fundamentally alter our country’s disastrous fiscal path,” Budd said.
Conservative Super PAC Club for Growth, called on Republicans to vote against the debt ceiling bill. Both Budd and Bishop have the financial backing of the organization.
“We urge all Representatives & Senators to vote NO on the debt limit increase,” Club for Growth tweeted. “Congress must be transparent with the American people show exactly how much debt Congress is approving while ending trillion-dollar deficits, ending the debt crisis, and ending Big Government.”
Club for Growth was an early supporter of Budd’s since his initial candidacy for the U.S. House in 2016. The organization helped propel Budd to become the front-runner in the North Carolina primary for Senate in 2022, pulling him ahead of both former Gov. Pat McCrory and former Rep. Mark Walker.
Club for Growth and its PACs invested around $14.5 million into North Carolina’s Senate campaign and more than $413,000 directly to Budd.
This story was originally published June 1, 2023 at 9:57 AM.
