Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, certainly not one of the most conservative members of the GOP caucus, has declared herself a hard “no” on the debt ceiling deal reportedly negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden.
She announced her decision not to support the measure on Tuesday, intimating that Republicans were outsmarted by the Democrat president despite his obvious mental fitness issues.
Earlier this year, the debt ceiling, a statutory restriction imposed by Congress to limit government spending beyond a predetermined national debt threshold of $31.4 trillion, was surpassed raising concerns of a potential default on loans within the coming week.
However, McCarthy and Biden reached an agreement that includes several provisions, such as suspending the debt limit until 2025, imposing spending growth caps for the next two years in various areas except for defense and veterans, and introducing expanded work requirements for individuals between the ages of 49 and 54 who receive food stamps.
In announcing her decision, Mace said that “playing the DC game isn’t worth selling out our kids and grandkids.” She also said that Republicans had been “outsmarted by a President who can’t find his pants.”
“This ‘deal’ normalizes record high spending started during the pandemic,” she noted on social media, adding that the new normals in spending exploded from $4 trillion pre-pandemic to $6 trillion after it ended. “It sets these historically high spending levels as the baseline for all future spending.”
As part of the agreement, approximately $30 billion in pandemic relief funds would be reclaimed, which is roughly proportional to the $41 billion reduction in federal spending during the bill’s initial year. Mace emphasized that only $1.4 billion out of the recently allocated $80 billion for the IRS would be rescinded, while the Biden administration’s plan for student debt cancellation would remain unaffected, the Daily Wire reported.
“Washington is, was and always will be lousy at responsibly spending your tax dollars,” she added. “That won’t change unless we demand change.”
House Republican leaders, however, are praising the deal. “The American people elected House Republicans to stop the out-of-control inflationary spending that has broken family budgets,” they said in a statement. “Today, we secured a historic series of wins worthy of the American people.”
