House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed ahead Wednesday toward a swift vote on his sweeping debt ceiling package despite a veto threat from the White House, struggling to shore up support even after making post-midnight concessions to Republican holdouts in the slim GOP majority.
Passage of the sprawling 320-page package in the House would be a turnaround for the embattled McCarthy as the chamber’s Republican majority confronts President Joe Biden with demands for spending restrictions and cuts in exchange for approving $1.5 more debt to pay the nation’s bills.
While the president has threatened to veto the Republican bill — which would almost surely die in the Senate anyway — McCarthy is challenging Biden with a GOP plan to kickstart negotiations and prevent a potentially catastrophic federal debt default this summer. The two could hardly be further apart on how to resolve the issue.
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