Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘Thank Every Republican’: McCarthy Takes Victory Lap Over Passage Of Debt Ceiling Bill

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Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California said Wednesday that Americans should “thank every Republican” for passing a debt limit bill that he said would boost the economy.

“You should thank every Republican who voted for this bill because they went out and fought hard,” McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “For those who did not vote for the bill, they’ve gotta hold with us because it makes us weaker that we do not have 100% and we are doing exactly what we told the American people we’d do.”

The bill passed the House of Representatives 217-215, with four Republicans, Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Ken Buck of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona joining every Democrat in voting “No” on the legislation. McCarthy released the plan, which cuts back a number of Biden administration initiatives, April 19.

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Gaetz explained his “no” vote in a tweet posted Wednesday and linked to a statement.

“I did talk to congressman Matt Gaetz,” Hannity told McCarthy. “If the vote was tomorrow, he would vote with you, but he didn’t like the process.”

Hannity questioned whether House Republicans could hold the line should Democrats attempt to pare back the savings in the bill.

“I need everybody to stand firm with us, even those four who voted against it as well,” McCarthy said. “What this bill is is it’s limit, save, grow. You want to limit the ability of government to grow so fast like it did with the Democrats going forward, so we capped the growth that 1% each year for the next ten. We save money by being smart. What we do is that money, billions of dollars sitting out there that Covid never spent, just sitting there, we claw that back so the American taxpayer can save the money. We put in work requirements to help people get jobs to move forward, help our supply chain and get our country moving again.”

“You know what else we do? By limiting the amount we spend, we curb inflation that makes people stronger. Then we want to grow our economy,” McCarthy continued. HR 1 lowering our energy costs. We lower the energy cost for all Americans but we also create more jobs. We cut the red tape so we can build things again in America. That’s just a small sampling of what we do in this bill and we also cut 87,000 IRS agents so government is here to help you.”