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On Thursday, the Senate approved a bipartisan agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling.
The bill received support from 46 Democrats and 17 Republicans, although 5 Democrats broke ranks to vote against the deal.
Among the Republican senators who voted against the agreement were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator John Boozman of Arkansas, Senator Shelley Capito of West Virginia, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Senator Todd Young of Indiana.
On the other hand, five senators opposed the deal.
“Four months after Speaker McCarthy invited President Biden to begin negotiating a resolution to the looming debt crisis, an important step toward fiscal sanity will finally become law. Thanks to House Republicans’ efforts, the Fiscal Responsibility Act avoids the catastrophic consequences of default and begins to curb Washington Democrats’ addiction to reckless spending that grows our nation’s debt.”
However, these Republicans faced opposition from fiscal conservatives who considered the deal insufficiently fiscally conservative to guarantee long-term financial stability.
“On the debt ceiling, my view is the most important deficit we face is the trade deficit with China. Every dollar represents jobs lost (60k & counting in Missouri), industry lost, communities decimated. We’ve got to quit making China rich & get good blue-collar jobs back in USA. This deal doesn’t do that. So I’m a no,” said Missouri Senator Josh Hawley in a statement explaining why he voted against his Senate party leader.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz agreed, saying in a statement: “While there were some good elements to this deal, such as reclaiming some unspent Covid-19 funds, there were a lot of elements that were disappointing. I’m upset this agreement did not cut more, and I’m frustrated this agreement adds a lot to the debt in exchange for relatively few spending cuts.”
