4 Republicans Explain Why They Opposed Speaker McCarthy’s Debt Limit Bill

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy led his fellow House Republicans in passing a bill on Wednesday that pairs an increase to the U.S. federal debt limit with trillions in future spending cuts. The bill passed mostly along party lines, but four Republicans joined Democrats in opposition to the debt limit arrangement—albeit for different reasons than their Democratic counterparts.
The Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (pdf) passed on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 217-215. Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) all voted against the legislation in the final vote.
The bill allows for the United States to add up to $1.5 trillion in additional debt until March 31, 2024, in exchange for spending cuts that Republicans estimated would result in more than $4.5 trillion in savings to American taxpayers. The bill would specifically set annual discretionary spending at Fiscal Year 2022 levels, and would regulate discretionary spending growth to 1 percent annually over the next decade….}