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A potential debt ceiling crisis appears all but averted, after the House passed the compromise deal forged by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) by a surprisingly large, bipartisan margin.
The final tally was 314-117, and it would suggest rather easy passage in the upcoming vote in the Senate, given how strong support was on both sides.
In the end, cries of foul from the House Freedom Caucus didn’t lead to much of a revolt on the right, and the Democratic Party largely stayed in line. Many members who didn’t have to vote for the deal to secure passage and avoid a potential default wound up voting for it anyway.
Here’s how the vote broke down, by the numbers.
The number of members who voted against this deal. This was fewer than on any debt ceiling vote since 2017, when 90 were opposed. In the four votes from 2018 to 2021, between 149 and 212 members — overwhelmingly Republicans — voted against it.
The percentage of Democrats who voted for the deal.
The percentage of Republicans who voted for the deal. The Freedom Caucus had hoped to keep support shy of a majority of the party, to be able to claim that it was a bad deal or even that McCarthy had violated his agreement with it. In the end, it was they who fell short of their goal. (Caucus members have since argued that because this got somewhat more Democratic votes, it was a Democratic bill and a bad deal.)
The number of Republicans voting against it.
The number of Republicans who opposed a debt ceiling deal the last time a debt ceiling vote came with significant concessions from a Democratic administration, in 2011.
The number of House Freedom Caucus members who voted for the deal, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Mike Johnson (R-La.). That means more than 1 in 6 Freedom Caucus members supported it, despite the pushback from other members of the caucus.
The number of House Republicans who voted for “clean” debt ceiling bills with no spending cuts under the Trump administration, but voted against this deal.
The number of Democrats who voted against the deal. That’s the most to vote against raising or suspending the debt ceiling since 2011. But it’s significantly fewer than the 95 Democrats who voted against the 2011 deal, which created the budget sequester and the debt-reduction “supercommittee.”
The percentage of Congressional Progressive Caucus members who voted for the deal. The 100-member caucus provided the bulk of the Democrats’ “no” votes — only 12 other Democrats opposed the deal — and its leadership mostly opposed the deal. But its members were ultimately strongly in favor.
Members of “The Squad” to vote for the deal, with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) voting in favor. Omar said she voted yes to avoid a default, while adding, “President Biden deserves credit for decreasing the ransom these hostage-takers demanded and for staving off even worse cuts for Minnesotans, but this is no way to legislate in a democracy,”
The number of Democrats who voted for the Republican rule to advance the deal Wednesday afternoon. Why is that significant? Because Republicans needed Democratic votes for the rule, which is very unusual. These are usually straight party-line votes, and Democratic leaders had suggested Republicans needed to carry the vote. Ultimately, 29 Republicans voted against the rule, leaving McCarthy shy of a majority. Some Democrats had waited to vote until the end, reinforcing that McCarthy needed them. “I probably would have done the same thing,” McCarthy conceded, adding: “Well played.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said that “we had to rescue House Republicans from their own extremism.”
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/01/debt-ceiling-numbers-vote/