Mike Lee says Senate Republicans will back House GOP in White House debt limit fight

Emily Jacobs

May 08, 02:44 AM May 08, 02:44 AM

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said on Sunday that the Senate Republican Conference will work to strengthen House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) negotiating position as he attempts to force President Joe Biden to negotiate a debt limit compromise.

Lee collected an impressive 42 signatures, not including his own, from his Senate GOP colleagues for a letter sent Saturday to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that voiced support for pairing a debt limit increase with spending cuts. Asked about the letter, which included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as a signatory, on WHD News's Sunday Morning Features, Lee said it was "imperative" McCarthy enter the White House "in a position of negotiating power."

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"We’ve got not only the Republican conference in the Senate backing what the Republicans in the House passed the week before last, but we’ve also got a solid bloc of Republicans," Lee said. "[We have] more than enough to block any sort of so-called ‘clean’ debt ceiling bill from going forward, anything that raises the debt ceiling without substantive spending and budgetary reforms."

"Whenever you’ve got 41 senators who are unwilling to bring debate to a close on any legislation, it cannot pass," he added, explaining how 59 yay votes fails reach the 60-vote filibuster threshold. "We’ve now got more than enough to stop exactly the kind of legislation that Joe Biden wants."

Lee went on to say that two other Senate Republicans privately expressed support for the letter but declined to sign "for strategic reasons." Those senators "indicated that they will stand with us in the votes," he claimed, adding that there were "a couple of others who may yet decide to join us yet."

McCarthy was able to hold enough of the House Republican Conference together to pass his debt ceiling budget proposal, which is meant to serve as an opening salvo in negotiations with the White House, late last month. Biden, backed up by Senate Democrats, has stood firm in his refusal to negotiate over the debt limit.

The debt ceiling, or the top amount the federal government can borrow, will either need to be raised or abolished sometime this summer to avert a debt default. Economists have long warned that such a default would wreak havoc on the economy.

McCarthy's legislation pairs nearly $4.8 trillion in deficit reduction measures with a debt limit increase into the next year. The bill would return government agency funding to 2022 levels and cap annual increases at about 1% annually, except for the Pentagon. It would also roll back parts of Biden’s expansive health, climate, and tax laws, expand mining and fossil fuel production, and impose work requirements on social programs.

The White House has decried the bill as an attempt at political "hostage-taking" and vowed that Biden would veto it if it reached his desk, though the likelihood of such legislation passing the Senate, where Democrats control the chamber 51-49, is slim.

Asked if he was confident McConnell and other Senate Republicans would withstand fiscal pressures and hold firm, Lee responded affirmatively, saying, "Even if we lost one or two here or there, we’d still be fine, and I don’t think we’re going to the lose any of them.”