Speaker Kevin McCarthy has a razor-thin Republican majority in the House. But he led his party to a substantial victory in the battle over raising the debt ceiling.
Among Republicans, 149 voted in favor of the deal he struck with President Biden, with 71 voting no. McCarthy not only secured the majority of the majority, he won a supermajority.
The speaker also secured substantial policy victories for his members: $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, tougher work requirements on certain safety-net programs, clawing back unspent Covid-relief money, measures to speed up environmental reviews for major projects, and no tax increases. Considering that Democrats control the Senate and the White House, this is all the more impressive.
The bill also passed the House with solid bipartisan support — 165 Democrats voted in favor.
And provided that the bill passes the Senate this weekend, the U.S. will have avoided damaging and embarrassing turmoil in financial markets. Even hard-line, pro-Trump Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene voted in favor, in part for this reason. She said: “There’s a lot of small businesses in my district, they don’t want to have financial problems. We don’t want to see our bonds downgraded. We don’t want to see any kind of economic failure or bank problems coming from a default.”
With the bill’s passage, McCarthy may have increased his odds of being removed as speaker, and the House GOP conference will be more acrimonious going forward. But McCarthy has demonstrated considerable skill at navigating these sorts of challenges.
Well done, Mr. Speaker.