Conservatives Urge McCarthy To Disregard Democrats’ Budget Shutdown Rhetoric
Although the GOP-led House of Representatives has the constitutional authority to oversee federal spending, many on the left are attempting to pressure Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to compromise in order to avoid a possible government shutdown next month.
A number of conservative lawmakers, on the other hand, are hoping that he will defend conservative principles even if it means the temporary halt of certain non-essential government functions.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), for example, asserted that McCarthy “faces two choices” before the budget deadline arrives.
He “stares down the Senate, stares down the White House, forces them to cave and is a transformational historic speaker … or he can choose to make a deal with Democrats,” the Virginia Republican opined.
If McCarthy caves to the demands of Democrats, Good concluded: “I don’t think that’s a sustainable thing for him as speaker.”
Other political pundits and policy wonks have similarly called on House Republicans to draw a line in the sand in pursuit of fiscal conservatism despite the potential ramifications.
Author and Heritage Foundation senior fellow Stephen Moore laid out his case in a recent op-ed, offering a stark contrast between the reaction of Democrats to the looming government shutdown and their response to the near-total shutdown of the private sector during the pandemic.
“Almost overnight, millions of Americans were out of their jobs,” he wrote. “Small business revenues collapsed, and tens of thousands of men and women who had put their whole life into their businesses were thrown into bankruptcy due to government lockdown edicts.”
Now, Moore noted, many of the same Democrats who pushed for those draconian measures are “near cardiac arrest” over the thought of closing down even a fraction of the federal bureaucracy.
“Apparently, the new rules are: You can close the doors of every small business in America, but don’t you dare shut down the Department of Education or Interior or National Public Radio for one day or there will be blood in the streets, senior citizens won’t get their meals on wheels and disabled children won’t have access to social services,” he added.
Although Moore made it clear that he would prefer for America to avoid a shutdown, he noted that there have been at least 20 since the Carter administration — and most Americans never experienced any change to their lives as a result.
On the other hand, the Biden administration’s out-of-control spending is a clear threat to the nation’s economic future — and Moore is among those who argue that it is worth a little temporary pain now so that House Republicans can protect America from serious long-term damage.
