The Hot Reaction of Fiscal Cons

I have to say I’m surprised — almost shocked — by the level of apparent anger and vitriol coming at Speaker McCarthy from his right side.

It seemed obvious to all of us outside of the negotiations that by getting to a united Republican approach in the House, McCarthy was put in the best position to extract minor concessions from the Democrats who control the Senate and the White House. The compromise bill does just that.

So what did the fiscal conservatives expect? That the Biden administration would just take the GOP House bill without alteration and make the Senate choke it down? Or did they expect McCarthy to lead the GOP caucus to unite around the bill and force a default first — one that would be easy for the president and the Senate Democrats to lay at the feet of the House Republicans?

Listen, it was never going to be a great fiscal-reform bill — especially when Republicans themselves started their position by ruling out changes to entitlement spending. In the end, their unity behind McCarthy got some spending cuts and caps, and it moved the White House off its “no negotiations, only a clean bill will do” position. Taken as a whole, when you only control one chamber, that seems like a pretty shrewd deal by Republicans. And one that would conveniently allow some number of fiscal fire-eaters to peel off in the end. Why not take the W?