Members of the House Freedom Caucus vowed to oppose continued federal spending at current levels and hinted that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) could lose his leadership position if a continuing resolution (CR) to that effect were passed this month.
“Green lighting a so-called clean or unqualified or blind CR is completely out of the question,” Rep. Andy Clyde (R-Ga.) said at a House Freedom Caucus press event on Sept. 19.
“It would endanger the Republican majority and endanger Speaker McCarthy’s leadership. We will not kick the can of addressing excessive government spending down the road again in order to buy the uni-party more time to produce yet another horrendous backroom deal.”
Mr. Clyde and others vented frustration at McCarthy’s failure to deliver on the primary demand hardliners made in exchange for supporting his leadership bid in January: to cut spending.
“We talked about reducing spending. That was a part of the agreement,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said. “We all know that we talked about it publicly. We haven’t done that. Period. Full stop. We haven’t done what we agreed to do.”
Earlier in the day, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is not a member of the House Freedom Caucus, issued a more explicit warning.
“If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black-letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy to allow his ascent to the speakership, and it would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate,” Mr. Gaetz told Newsmax.
Mr. Roy declined to affirm that idea, preferring to focus on overcoming the challenges facing the country.
“Right now, we’re here presenting what we believe is the right path forward to make sure this country is actually saved from deficits, from wide open borders, from a woke military, and a [Department of Justice] that’s weaponized against the American people,” Mr. Roy said.
“And if Democrats don’t want to work with us on that, if some of our Republican colleagues don’t want to work with us on that, that’s on them to figure out what’s going to happen on Oct. 1,” he said, referring to a possible government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
House Republicans passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act in April, which cut federal spending to the 2022 level. In May, Mr. McCarthy negotiated with President Joe Biden to raise the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling in exchange for certain cuts to non-defense discretionary spending.
That agreement resulted in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, passed in June, which did not cut spending to 2022 level.
Now, with time running out before the end of the fiscal year, Republican hardliners are angered both by what they see as Mr. McCarthy’s reneging on their deal and by the prospect of being blamed for a government shutdown.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who also attended the press event, summarized the situation this way.
“A small handful of appropriators will write something up with a push from the law firm of Schumer, McConnell, McCarthy, and Jeffries,” Mr. Lee said, referring to congressional leaders Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in addition to Mr. McCarthy.
“It will materialize–Shazam! Here you go–from out of nowhere. It is usually with just a few hours to go. You’ve got to pass this thing, and if you don’t, there'll be a shutdown. If there’s a shutdown, we will blame you for that, but vote how you want. You will have no opportunity to amend this, you will have no opportunity to read it, to understand what’s in it, to share it with your constituents, to object to it, to improve it to comment on it,” Mr. Lee said.
That process shuts the millions of people who voted for rank-and-file members of Congress out of the legislative process, according to Mr. Lee, denying them a voice in the operation of their government.
“Back in January, we fought to fundamentally alter the way this institution works. We fought to restore the people’s House,” Mr. Clyde said, saying that the fight must continue to stop overspending.
Other members spoke of their desire to reign in what they see as abuses of power by the government, which they believe is best done by controlling spending.
“We’re here to put our foot down and say to this place, right here, it stops now,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said.
“The power of the purse is in the legislature, and the way you stop all this craziness of the Biden administration—the tyranny of the Biden administration—is to stop giving them money.”
Asked specifically about limiting the power of the FBI, Mr. Perry said, “Generally speaking, we do not want to fund them at their current level. We want to send them a message that obviously have too much money. They’re weaponized, and using the taxpayer’s money against the taxpayer. We’re done with that.”
Mr. Perry sought to disassociate the debate over spending from the impeachment investigation into President Biden announced by Mr. McCarthy earlier in the day.
“I agree with the speaker that impeachment should not be done for political reasons. If the facts take us to that location, then that’s where they should take us. But it has nothing to do with the debt, the deficit, the outrageous spending, the inflation that’s crushing American families. Those are two separate issues and they should be dealt with separately,” he said.
