Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Monday plans for Senate hearings starting this week “to expose the true impact of this reckless legislation on everyday Americans.”
Thursday’s Budget Committee hearing will be led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.
The McCarthy bill would raise the debt ceiling while setting government spending in 2024 to 2022 levels, capping spending growth at 1%.
Other deficit-cutting measures in the bill include clawing back unspent COVID aid, canceling student loan debt forgiveness, reducing restrictions on new energy projects and repealing Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and IRS funding.
Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell who has a long history of negotiating with President Biden on high profile issues, says he is staying out of the negotiations.
McConnell supported the bipartisan infrastructure package and big new investments in the domestic semiconductor industry to help advance Biden’s agenda, but says the President and McCarthy need to work out a deal on the debt limit among themselves, arguing any proposal that originates from the Senate can’t pass the House.
Republican Senators have expressed doubt about McConnell’s end game, though.
“McConnell is probably just sitting there waiting for it to all fail so he can be asked to come in and be the savior,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity.
“I think [McConnell’s] position is, ‘Let’s see what the House can do that makes sense.’ But here’s the reality, the likelihood of the House being able to propose something seems to be questionable. Eventually Schumer’s going to bring up a bill to increase the debt ceiling, a clean debt-ceiling increase, and we’re going to have to vote on it” in the Senate, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Hill earlier this year.