McCarthy’s future on the line as he whips debt ceiling deal

Published

2 years ago

May 31, 2023

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He got President Biden to negotiate. And then he got a deal. Now, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is in the final phase of his debt ceiling saga: Whipping up enough support for the bill in the House GOP conference to secure his political future.

Basic political wisdom dictates that McCarthy needs a majority of House Republicans to support the bill in order to maintain his political power, and McCarthy has repeatedly said that he will meet that standard. He knows he’ll need Democratic help to pass the measure, but the more GOP members that vote with him, the better for the Speaker.

“If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy to allow his ascent to the Speakership, and it would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on Newsmax on Tuesday – referring to a move to oust McCarthy from the Speakership.

As of Tuesday evening, more than two dozen members of the slim, four-seat GOP majority said they will vote against the bill, meaning McCarthy will need to rely on Democratic members supporting the Biden-blessed deal to pass the bill.

If more Democrats than Republicans vote for the bill, McCarthy could be in hot water.

“I am predicting it’ll have more Democrat votes than Republican votes,” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said Tuesday. “Democrats are truly being told to suppress their enthusiasm, to not talk about it publicly.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that Republicans committed to deliver at least two-thirds of the GOP conference – around 150 GOP members – in favor of the bill. He said Democrats would provide the vote needed to pass the bill, but vowed to hold McCarthy to that number.

McCarthy did not answer a question Tuesday on whether he could deliver 150 GOP votes for the bill, but said that he expects the bill to pass.

Some members are already starting to threaten McCarthy’s grasp on the Speaker’s gavel, officially ending the honeymoon that lasted for months after the four-day, 15-ballot saga to elect McCarthy Speaker in January.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) became the first GOP member to publicly call for ousting McCarthy by making a motion to vacate the chair over the debt deal on Tuesday. While it takes just one member to force a vote on ousting the Speaker – a threshold that McCarthy agreed to lower from five during his drawn-out Speaker election in January – Bishop did not explicitly commit to making that motion.

And Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) confirmed an NBC News report that in a House Freedom Caucus call on Monday night, he asked whether they were considering calling a motion to vacate over spending levels in the debt bill being higher than fiscal year 2022 levels.

“[Rep.] Scott Perry [R-Pa.], the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told me it’s premature,” Buck said on MSNBC Tuesday.

Republican leaders called members back to Washington for Tuesday evening votes and an evening conference meeting, allowing leadership to whip support for the bill in person.

“We’re kicking way beyond our weight. We barely control half of a third of the government,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said in a House GOP press call on Monday evening.

In a two-and-half hour House GOP conference meeting into the night on Tuesday, opponents of the bill aired grievances while leaders and their allies argued in favor of the bill. Members left the meeting saying their minds had not been changed.

But the meeting also served to lessen any retaliation against leadership by those angry with the bill.

“It’s a foregone conclusion it’s gonna pass. They’re gonna have Democrat support to pass it,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). “And so, we just talked about the after-effects. I don’t think McCarthy wants another uprising like this.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who was a swing vote on a procedural hurdle to advance the bill in the House Rules Committee, announced his support for the bill in the meeting. It is the first legislation that he can vote for that has a chance to make it into law that cuts spending, he said.

“The engineer and the problem solver in me wanted to vote for the bill, and the politician did not,” Massie said. “I’m going against my political instincts in voting for it.”

The debt limit deal that McCarthy struck with Biden claws back some spending, increases work requirements on public assistance programs, and does not include tax increases – meeting all of the Speaker’s stated red lines for a deal.

But it has significantly fewer cuts and policy reforms less than the House GOP’s “Limit, Save, Grow” legislation passed in April. Some members accuse GOP leadership of overstating how much money the bill saves, pointing out loopholes that can undermine or nullify some of the GOP’s stated wins.

Members of the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus are pushing GOP members to vote against the bill – warning that their conservative credentials are on the line.

“If every Republican voted the way that they campaigned, they would vote against tomorrow’s bad deal,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a press conference Tuesday.

Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, will oppose the bill and include a “key vote” against it on its scorecard – a metric of conservatism that holds weight with many Republican members of Congress, campaign donors and voters. The conservative advocacy organization FreedomWorks also called a “key vote” against the bill on Tuesday.

Some members are showing that they can be swayed. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told reporters that while the bill is a “shit sandwich,” she is interested in what “sides” leaders can provide to make the metaphorical meal more appetizing – such as a balanced budget amendment or rescinding more IRS funding. “Dessert,” Greene said, would be impeaching Biden or Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

McCarthy brushed off conservative criticism of the bill on Tuesday.

“I’m not sure what in the bill people are concerned about. It is the largest savings of $2.1 trillion we’ve ever had,” McCarthy told reporters, citing what Republicans say are preliminary Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates of how much the deal could reduce the deficit.

Critics of that figure say that appropriations targets past 2025 are not enforceable.

The CBO on Tuesday evening estimated the deficit reduction at $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

McCarthy also told CNN that he is not worried about his Speakership, saying that he is “still standing” and that reporters are “underestimating” him.

Some of the opposition to the bill is coming outside of the House Freedom Caucus.

Freshman Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) – who flew back from visiting his wife and newborn in the hospital in order to vote for McCarthy for Speaker in January – said Tuesday that he will vote no on the bill. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), a senior member on the House Ways and Means Committee, also tweeted he plans to oppose the bill. Median pay dips for the few women CEOs of S&P 500 companies Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s introduce new app feature that can track customers’ location

To some Republicans, the opposition to the deal is puzzling.

“We don’t control all those levers of power. So we can’t throw a Hail Mary pass on every play, which is what some that are our conference may want to do,” Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) said Monday, saying the bill “is like a 60 yard pass, maybe completed pass.”

Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell contributed.

Environment

Renewables to continue driving US power generation growth – EIA

Published

2 hours ago

February 1, 2025

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Renewables to continue driving US power generation growth – EIA

solar wind renewables EIA — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Renewable capacity additions, especially solar, will continue to drive the growth of US power generation over the next two years, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

According to its latest “Short-Term Energy Outlook” (STEO), the EIA expects that US utilities and independent power producers will add 26 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity to the US electric power sector in 2025 and 22 GW in 2026.

Last year, the electric power sector added a record 37 GW of solar power capacity to the electric power sector, almost double the solar capacity additions in 2023. The EIA forecasts wind capacity additions will increase by around 8 GW in 2025 and 9 GW in 2026, slight increases from the 7 GW added in 2024.

Generating capacity for most other energy sources will remain mostly unchanged in 2025 and 2026. Natural gas-fired capacity growth slowed in 2024, with only 1 GW of capacity added to the power mix, but natural gas is still the largest source of US power generation.

The EIA forecasts that US coal retirements will accelerate, removing 6% (11 GW) of coal generating capacity from the US electricity sector in 2025 and removing another 2% (4 GW) in 2026. Last year, coal retirements represented about 3 GW of electric power capacity removed from the power system, which is the lowest annual amount of coal capacity retired since 2011.

The EIA expects that planned renewable capacity additions will support most of the growth in US electric power generation, which is anticipated to increase by 2% in 2025 and by 1% in 2026. The US electric power sector produced a total of 4,155 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 2024, up 3% from 2023.

Natural gas. In 2024, US natural gas-fired power plants generated a total of 1,767 billion kWh, 4% more than in 2023. Natural gas-fired power accounted for around 42% of the US electricity mix, mostly unchanged compared with 2023. The EIA expects natural gas generation to decline in 2025 by 3% to 1,712 billion kWh and decrease a further 1% to 1,692 billion kWh in 2026.

Renewables. The EIA expects renewable power generation will increase by 12% in the US to 1,058 billion kWh in 2025 and increase a further 8% to 1,138 billion kWh in 2026. Renewable sources were the second-largest contributor to US power generation in 2024 and accounted for 945 billion kWh, up 9% from 2023.

Nuclear. The EIA forecasts that US nuclear power generation will grow 2% to 796 billion kWh in 2025 and increase a further 1% to 800 billion kWh in 2026. Nuclear power generation in 2024 was up slightly from 2023, totaling 781 billion kWh.

Coal. Coal electricity generation was 647 billion kWh in 2024. The EIA expects US coal power generation to remain unchanged at around 640 billion kWh in 2025 and 2026.

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US

Washington DC plane crash: Army withholding name of female soldier killed as helicopter black box recovered

Published

4 hours ago

February 1, 2025

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Washington DC plane crash: Army withholding name of female soldier killed as helicopter black box recovered

The name of one of the three soldiers killed in the plane crash in Washington is not being released.

The army identified two of the soldiers killed when an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter collided mid-air as Staff Sergeant Ryan Austin O’Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves.

However, it made the unusual decision, at the request of the family, not to release the name of the third soldier.

Meanwhile, investigators announced the black box from the Black Hawk helicopter has been recovered.

They are reviewing the flight data recorder along with two from the plane as they probe the cause of the devastating crash.

Forty-one bodies had been pulled from the river as of Friday afternoon, including 28 that had been positively identified, Washington DC fire chief John Donnelly Sr said at a news conference.

He said next of kin notifications had been made to 18 families, and that he expects that all 67 of the bodies of the dead will eventually be recovered.

“It’s been a tough response for a lot of our people,” Mr Donnelly said, noting that more than 300 responders were taking part in the effort at any one time.

Investigators have already recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines plane, which struck the helicopter as the plane was coming in for a landing at the airport next to Washington.

Officials are scrutinising a range of factors in what National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy has called an “all-hands-on-deck event”.

Investigators are examining the actions of the military pilot as well as air traffic control, after the helicopter apparently flew into the jet’s path.

Air crash investigations normally take 12-18 months, and investigators told reporters on Thursday that they would not speculate on the cause.

It has been suggested the helicopter exceeded an altitude limit.

Mr Trump said in a Friday morning post on his Truth Social platform that the helicopter was “flying too high” at the time of the crash.

“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” he said.

His comments came a day after he questioned the helicopter pilot’s actions while also blaming diversity initiatives for undermining air safety.

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Details have been emerging about others who died in the crash, including Danasia Elder, a flight attendant on the American Airlines flight, WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported.

World

‘They’re the ones who wronged us’: Freed Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi rebukes UK and US over ‘harm they’ve caused’

Published

4 hours ago

February 1, 2025

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'They're the ones who wronged us': Freed Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi rebukes UK and US over 'harm they've caused'

One of the most high-profile prisoners to be released by Israel has told Sky News that the world has ignored Palestinians and says Britain is one of the countries he blames for taking away his freedom.

Zakaria Zubeidi was imprisoned in 2019 after being found guilty by an Israeli military court of involvement in terrorism.

He was released as part of the ceasefire agreement and welcomed back to the West Bank by crowds of well-wishers, including the man who was prime minister less than a year ago.

Analysis: Zubeidi an ‘extremist’ to Israel but inspiration to Palestine

In his first interview with a European broadcaster, Zubeidi told Sky News he still believes in “a resistance that will lead us to freedom” but claimed that Israeli occupation of the West Bank was wholly down to the international community.

“My life is worthless without freedom,” he said, speaking in Ramallah. “Freedom has no price. But the world that has denied me my freedom – particularly Britain, France, and the United States – must return what they have taken from me and my children.

“They are the ones who need to reconsider their mistakes, not me.

“They are the ones who have wronged us, and they should think about rectifying the harm they have caused to me and my children.”

Zubeidi, whose mother, brother and son have all died as a result of Israeli military action, has admitted involvement in a 2002 bombing that killed six people.

However, he has also been acclaimed by many in the West Bank as a symbol of the resistance.

He was famously part of a group of prisoners who briefly escaped their Israeli jail after using kitchen utensils to dig a tunnel.

“My message to the Palestinian people is to prioritise their safety and well-being because the assault being carried out against them is immense. I have no message for the occupation [Israel],” he said.

“My message is to the world – the same world that granted the occupation the right to live on my land – to grant me my freedom.”

In common with many other released prisoners, he claimed to have been beaten while behind bars, saying: “The situation in Israeli prisons is extremely harsh. We’ve witnessed it all: severe beatings, attack dogs, relentless insults. Every form of abuse imaginable has been inflicted on the bodies of our prisoners.”

While many in Israel will consider Zubeidi to be a dangerous, murderous extremist, he is considered a totemic figure in the West Bank, and a natural leader in Jenin, where he grew up in a refugee camp.

After being released, Israeli authorities banned him from returning to Jenin.

Instead, he has remained in Ramallah, where a long line of people came to a school building to shake his hand and hug him.

Among them, former prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who resigned less than a year ago.

He embraced Zubeidi and told Sky News the release of prisoners could be a catalyst for an enduring peace deal.

“We would like to see all prisoners released and we would like to see all hostages going home,” said Mr Shtayyeh.

He continued: “It’s a historic moment for everybody. It’s time for this bloodshed to stop. And I think it is a moment of truth for everybody.

“In Gaza, 60,000 people have been killed, more than 120,000 have been injured. And of course, there have been so many casualties in Israel, too.

“We know that. And this time Palestinians are desperate for peace. We want a genuine peace process that does really bring peace and justice for everybody.”

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The offensive followed Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when it took 250 people hostage and killed around 1,200 others.