House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing a potential uprising by members of his own party in the far-right Freedom Caucus after the passage of a deal he orchestrated to raise the federal spending limit and avoid a catastrophic debt default.
Back in California, in his home district of Bakersfield, some constituents are praising the Republican leader for his handling of the tense negotiations that largely held the Democratic line without making progress on key conservative priorities.
Joshua Yeager / KVPR
/
KVPR
The Rodriguez family is celebrating a birthday at Wool Growers, a 67-year-old Basque restaurant in House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Bakersfield neighborhood.
At Wool Growers, a historic Basque restaurant and Bakersfield institution, owner Jenny Maitia-Poncetta and many locals watched the debt ceiling showdown unfold from a small television set above the bar.
McCarthy’s willingness to reach across the aisle and broker a deal is a strength of the embattled speaker, he said.
“I’m a Republican and I’m proud to be a Republican, but I know we have to work together to make it work,” he said of the bill that ultimately won more Democratic votes than Republicans.
And what’s more, he says, the deal saw non-defense spending cut for the first time in years. Deeper cuts would be ideal, but this is still a victory for the Tories.
“Everything is better than nothing”, adds the restaurateur.
Diner Randy McDaniel agrees between sips of hearty vegetable soup.
“I’m very conservative, but I think people who are too right-wing are going to kill us if they don’t get a little bit in the middle,” he said.
In particular, McDaniel says he’s happy to see the expansion of work requirements tied to food stamp eligibility.
“I’m fine with helping people who really need it, but I think there are too many people who aren’t doing their part to try to get better,” he said.
Ivy Cargile is a professor of political science at California State University, Bakersfield. He has been watching the debates closely and says McCarthy fared better than expected, given his controversial path to the speaker.
“The debt ceiling bill passed and that’s a win for him,” he said. “This is a solid win for him.”
She says a deal to raise the debt limit and spare the country an unprecedented financial crisis was not a foregone conclusion.
“I was worried,” she said. “In Kern County, poverty levels are high. People are living paycheck to paycheck. And some of those checks come from the federal government.”
Cargile says he is looking forward to how McCarthy will handle the federal government’s funding struggle, through the formal budgeting process, later this year.
In an unprecedented concession to claim the speaker’s gavel, any House Republican can trigger a motion to fire McCarthy. It is not yet clear whether anyone in his conference will activate what some lawmakers have called the “nuclear” option.
But that hasn’t stopped hard-line conservatives from voicing their displeasure with McCarthy and the party leadership. Earlier this week, some members of the Freedom Caucus changed routine House procedures ahead of a vote to block future bans on gas stoves, a Republican priority.
The turmoil spread to other factions of the Republican Party on Wednesday, McCarthy told reporters Wednesday evening, adding that he wasn’t concerned about the threats to his hammer.
If House Republicans were to oust the speaker — a big “if” at this point — it’s unclear who might pick up the gavel. Any replacement would have a difficult task finding consensus within the divided party, Cargile says.
The search for a new party leader could also distract from what is already shaping up to be a contentious 2024 presidential election, he adds.
Copyright 2023 KVPR
