McCarthy Mocked for Needing Democrats to Pass Debt Ceiling Deal

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is being mocked after Democrats came to the rescue to help him pass his debt ceiling deal through the GOP-controlled House.

The bill, which is known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, was drafted following negotiations between McCarthy and President Joe Biden. It passed by a vote of 314-117 in the House on Wednesday night. However, only 149 House Republicans actually voted in favor of the legislation, with 165 Democrats helping to push it across the finish line.

During a press conference after the vote, McCarthy brushed off suggestions that he might have given away more than Biden in the deal, insisting that he thought it was "wonderful" that more Democrats had voted for the bill than Republicans because they were now "on record" agreeing with some of his positions.

While McCarthy was praised by some for his role in getting the deal done and passed in the House, a significant number of members of Congress, political pundits and observers ridiculed the California Republican on social media after the legislation passed.

The hard-right House Freedom Caucus, which strongly opposed the bill, was unequivocal in its condemnation of the legislation passing, tweeting that the discrepancy between Democratic and Republican votes "tells you everything you need to know."

"This is a win for Joe Biden: An uncapped debt ceiling increase to finance his agenda to Jan 2025 while leaving every one of his policies intact," the Freedom Caucus tweeted.

A number of Freedom Caucus members also denounced the deal shortly after the vote.

"Unfortunately, we had a bad night for America," Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana tweeted. "149 Republicans joined 165 Democrats to add an additional $4 trillion to our national debt - an absolute insult to the American people!"

"More Democrats voted for this 'historic conservative victory' than Republicans," tweeted Representative Eli Crane of Arizona. "What a joke."

"Speaker McCarthy had significant leverage over these negotiations and yet he capitulated on nearly every front," Arizona Representative Andy Biggs said in a statement. "Tonight, the DC Uniparty is taking a victory lap as they squeezed their radical wish list out of Speaker McCarthy."

Republican criticism of McCarthy and the deal was not limited to Freedom Caucus members.

Representative Cory Mills of Florida complained in a tweet that the bill "completely eliminates the debt limit for the rest of Biden's presidency," while adding "the term for a bill that gets more Democrat votes than Republican votes is a Democrat bill."

Patrick Parson, former chief of staff for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, referred to the deal as the "debt scam" in a tweet that called the Democratic support "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

"McCarthy is a joke and anyone who supported him as speaker should resign in disgrace!" tweeted @Aldaramira.

McCarthy was also mocked by members of the political left after the bill passed with the support of more Democrats than Republicans.

"WOW. MORE Democrats voted to increase the debt ceiling than Republicans did according to the final tally — & Democrats aren't even in the majority," tweeted podcaster Victor Shi, a 2020 delegate for Biden. "More evidence that Kevin McCarthy is a truly ineffective Speaker & that Republicans are in disarray."

"It is astonishing that more House Democrats voted for Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy's spending cuts bill than his own House Republicans," MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan tweeted.

Democratic House members who voted for the bill praised their party for making the bill pass, with Representative Don Beyer of Virginia tweeting that the vote had averted "a catastrophic debt default that would wreck our economy."

"Though we are in the minority, Democrats provided more votes, and were key to getting this done," Beyer added. "An imperfect bill, but the alternative was so much worse. I voted yes."

Some Democrats also reportedly made comments that suggested they were gloating over McCarthy championing legislation that they supported.

"Now we are allowed to say it: we rolled them" said Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman of California, according to Bloomberg reporter Erik Wasson.

"The left saying the quiet part out loud tonight..." Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who voted against the bill, tweeted in response to Sherman's reported comments.

Newsweek has reached out to the office of McCarthy via email for comment.

Some supporters of McCarthy praised the speaker for working to pass the bill, regardless of the partisan breakdown of the final vote tally.

GOP Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana, who voted in favor of the bill, called it "one of the most significant pieces of legislation that's ever passed."

"Congrats dear Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy," @auinger2 tweeted. "Great Job Well Done. WOW!"

"McCarthy won tonight over the extremists in his party who do not give a fig about what is right for the Us but blindly follow an irrational extremist dogma," tweeted @Jim91674418. "McCarthy won and so did the US."