South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace announced on Tuesday that she is a “no” vote on the debt ceiling deal, writing that “Republicans got outsmarted by a President who can’t find his pants.”
Mace posted a lengthy Twitter thread on Tuesday morning announcing that she will “no” vote on the deal reached between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Biden to avoid a national debt default.
“Washington is broken,” Mace wrote.
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“I’m voting NO on the debt ceiling debacle because playing the DC game isn’t worth selling out our kids and grandkids,” the South Carolina Republican said.
Mace argued the bipartisan debt ceiling package “normalizes record high spending started during the pandemic” and “sets these historically high spending levels as the baseline for all future spending” while growing the government annually at around one percent.
“After factoring in a small cut to discretionary spending over the next 2 yrs, we are still talking about ~$6T more or less in spending [because] of large increases in spending elsewhere,” Mace wrote. “In other words, it’s a wash spending-wise.”
Mace said the government “grew massively over the past 3 years” and that the growth “was supposed to be emergency funding only during COVID.”
“During this time, govt grew 40% or by $2 trillion from 2019 to 2023,” Mace wrote. “We went from spending just over $4T to spending just over $6T.”
“This deal keeps that record high spending intact and makes it the baseline for all spending,” she continued. “Wild.”
Mace said the debt ceiling deal “doesn’t actually set a debt limit” and instead “suspends the debt limit entirely” until January 2, 2025 with no real cap on the debt ceiling.
“Some say there will be a $2T deficit in 6 years, but that CBO guesstimate relies on spending caps that do not exist and are not binding in any way in this deal,” Mace wrote.
“And only in DC is a bill clawing back small amounts of unspent COVID funds considered a cut. They tell us this bill cuts $41b in its first year; about the same amount as the unspent COVID funds. Pretty convenient. Also not a cut.”
“And on that note, do we really think the states will send back unspent COVID funds or will they find a way to use the money so they don’t have to send it back?” Mace added.
The South Carolina Republican wrote that “[p]ay-as-you-go has some fine print under Section 265” and encouraged Americans to read it, noting the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director “has sole waiver authority to spend if it’s ‘necessary for program delivery.’”
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Mace argued “that one line wipes out PAYGO” and that the “words on paper are totally meaningless if you read the fine print.”
“63% of Americans want Congress to cut spending as part of a debt ceiling deal. This bill doesn’t do that,” she wrote. “Unacceptable.”
“Washington is, was and always will be lousy at responsibly spending your tax dollars,” Mace added. “That won’t change unless we demand change.”
Mace’s announcement makes her the latest GOP lawmaker to push back against the debt ceiling plan. Several of the most conservative House Republicans have also bucked the party on the bipartisan debt ceiling plan.
Meanwhile, Republican leadership has been touting the debt ceiling deal negotiated with Biden as a win for conservatives.
“[The White House] wanted new tax policy, they want new tax revenue, they wanted tax increases,” said House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on a call with reporters Monday night. “They wanted more price fixing, like more price setting, in the private sector for a variety of products, especially pharmaceuticals. Their key policy issues they forced into the conversation, are not in this bill.”
“They get an 18-month increase in the debt ceiling. And in return, we reduce spending, we have major changes to the permitting process,” added McHenry, who described the deal as a “conservative bill that rides atop an 18-month increase in the debt ceiling.”
McHenry negotiated the deal along with Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., who also backed up the final product and shook off complaints from the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
“I’ll just say that I think it’s pretty clear, based on their public statements and where we are right now, the clear victors in this overall negotiation,” he said.
At the same time, several Republicans said over the weekend they cannot support the deal, which will face its first test in a Tuesday Rules Committee hearing, where lawmakers will prep the bill for a House vote. Republicans control that committee with 9-4 majority, but two GOP members — Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R-S.C. – have already spent the weekend trashing the bill in public and could vote against it.
“This ‘deal’ is insanity. A $4T debt ceiling increase with virtually no cuts is not what we agreed to. Not gonna vote to bankrupt our country. The American people deserve better,” Norman said in a post on Saturday night.
Roy, who has been a key negotiator within the conference for the Freedom Caucus, claimed that McCarthy made an “explicit” promise during the speaker vote this year that Republican support on a bill had to be unanimous in the Rules Committee before it gets to the House floor.
He also wrote of the debt limit bill, “It’s not a good deal. Some $4 Trillion in debt for – at best – a two-year spending freeze and no serious substantive policy reforms.”
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed reporting.