House Republicans hit the road on Monday.
Summary
House Republicans hit the road on Monday. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivered a major address to the New York Stock Exchange laying out his negotiating position ahead of debt limit talks and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan brought his committee for a “field hearing” on violent crime in New York City.
- Speaker McCarthy vowed House Republicans would raise the debt ceiling but would seek caps on future federal spending increases, spending cuts and revenue increases to tackle the “ticking time bomb” of America’s national debt.
- McCarthy knocked President Joe Biden as “missing in action” as the summer deadline to raise the debt ceiling draws ever closer.
- Chairman Jordan’s field hearing was held near the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s offices to investigate Bragg’s “pro-crime, anti-victim” policies.
- Democrats attacked the hearing as a “partisan stunt” designed to damage Bragg while his office prosecutes former President Donald Trump.
- Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler blasted the GOP’s “stunt hearing on ‘violent crime in Manhattan’” in a statement.
- Nadler claimed the hearing was for one purpose – “to protect Donald Trump” and used percentage reductions in crime without context to make the case that Republicans are responsible for crime in deep-blue Manhattan because they oppose gun control.
- CNN reported House Republicans are working behind the scenes to get the House GOP on side with leadership’s plan to hike the debt ceiling for one year in conjunction with spending cuts and revenue increases.
- McCarthy defended his decision to seek spending cuts and policy concessions in conjunction with a debt ceiling increase in his speech to the NYSE, according to the Washington Post. “Debt limit negotiations are an opportunity to examine our nation’s finances,” McCarthy said. He added, “Defaulting on our debt is not an option, but neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates, more dependency on China and an economy that doesn’t work for working Americans.”
- The New York Times chronicled how Jim Jordan “wrestled his way to power.” The Times characterized the Monday hearing as a chance for Jordan to “battle Mr. Bragg on his own turf, in a hearing that aims to spotlight crime in the city on his watch. Mr. Jordan has accused Mr. Bragg of advancing “radical pro-crime, anti-victim policies” while pursuing a case against Mr. Trump that he claims constitutes “interference” in the 2024 presidential race.”
- The Wall Street Journal summarized McCarthy’s priorities from the NYSE address earlier Monday. House Republicans want “Congress to place limits on federal spending, claw back Covid-19 aid and require Americans to work to receive federal benefits” in exchange for a debt-limit increase. “Let me be clear: A no-strings-attached debt-limit increase will not pass,” said McCarthy.
- Jordan previewed the House Judiciary field hearing in an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Monday morning. Jordan discussed the House Judiciary Committee’s work on crime and the calls for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to step down due to health concerns.
- The father of a victim of a brutal anti-Semitic attack bashed Nadler and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the House Judiciary field hearing in New York, per the New York Post. Barry Borgen blasted his fellow “Jewish New Yorker[s]” Nadler and Schumer with their failure to respond to crime in New York and specifically for their silence about anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish New Yorkers.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
