Whip Emmer vows House GOP will pass ‘historic’ debt ceiling package with or without Democrats
Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., vowed the House GOP will pass their “historic” debt ceiling package with or without support from the Democrats.
Emmer caught up with Fox News Digital in a phone call this week to talk about the Republican package to raise the debt ceiling while curbing federal spending that Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reached a deal to coalesce the caucus behind the bill.
The House GOP whip told Fox News Digital the chatter that a deal like this “has never happened before” is “true” and that the bill is “a deal to extend the debt ceiling into next year with almost four and a half trillion dollars worth of savings.”
BEHIND THE BELTWAY: HOW TOM EMMER IS DRUMMING UP SUPPORT FOR GOP PRIORITIES
“And, frankly, some things that would put this country at a much better footing, not only for the next decade but a lot longer when they become law,” Emmer said. “So it’s pretty basic.”
Emmer said the bill was a “bottom-up process in the House,” and the proposal “was not written by the speaker,” “majority leader,” himself, or “any one of the different groups that identify themselves within the Republican conference.”
“This literally was weeks of listening sessions in the whip’s office,” Emmer said, noting the bill “actually includes data” that was “derived” from his meetings.
“This literally is the conference writing a bill that they can get 218 votes for, and that’s why I expect it to pass,” he continued.
The number three House Republican also told Fox News Digital the bill is “not perfect, and nobody expects anything to be perfect,” but will make it through the House, noting he does not “need any Democrats to pass this.”
“That being said, I think any Democrat that votes against this, they’re crazy because you’re going to have to go home and look your constituents in the eye, and you’re going to have to tell them that ‘I voted against putting this country back on track to be in a better position financially,’” Emmer said.
“‘I voted against something that can finally get this inflation, this Biden inflation, under control. There’s just so many things I’ve voted against: work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults to get back into the workforce and drive our economy,’” Emmer continued.
“I mean, this would be completely foolish,” he added.
The debt ceiling package looks to curb federal spending while preventing the U.S. from defaulting on the national debt.
“The first piece is about limiting spending — that’s going back to pre-pandemic levels of spending, FY22 baseline — and then capping growth to one percent per year over the next decade,” the House GOP whip continued. “That saves you a little less than $3.5 trillion.”
Emmer said the “next piece” of the package “is saving taxpayer money” by curbing spending, such as prohibiting “Biden’s illegal student loan bailout” that would create “about $550 billion in first-year savings.”
“And then there’s a piece about growing the economy… This piece is about growing the economy, which includes the REINS Act that’s been scored by an outside group as having a minimum impact of about $600 billion,” Emmer said.
The whip said Republicans “are not going to cut defense” and are “protecting Medicare and Social Security,” and that the bill does not specifically target certain programs.
“But this has to happen. There was an explosion of domestic spending in this place using the pandemic as the excuse. House Republicans finally got this president to acknowledge the pandemic is over, and guess what? Now we need to go back to pre-pandemic spending levels, and we need to put ourselves on a course over the next decade to get this thing under control.”
McCarthy told a senior Republican on the debt ceiling plan last night that there “appears to be a deal” on the measure.
House Republicans have a razor-thin majority, with only four votes they can lose before the bill becomes in danger of not passing.
McCarthy struck a deal last night on the bill, altering ethanol tax credit provisions to garner support from Midwestern Republicans, especially from Iowa.
Additionally, the deal tightened up work requirements for healthy, childless adults who are receiving federal health and nutrition assistance while also cutting deeper into programs that are part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.
Should the measure pass the House as expected, the bill will go to the Senate, where it will be met with support from GOP Senators Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Rick Scott of Florida.
Emmer also noted that he was told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., directed the Senate GOP conference “to be very supportive of what we’re doing.”
“He wants to see us get something over there,” Emmer added.
Fox News Digital’s Chad Pergram and Tyler Olson contributed reporting.