Rep. George Santos Tuesday remained on the fence about the Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for punishing spending cuts and conservative policy changes.
The controversial Long Island lawmaker has denounced the measure pushed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He is officially undecided ahead of a planned vote on Wednesday, a source close to Santos said.
McCarthy can likely only afford to lose four votes in the closely divided chamber, raising the stakes for him to win over Santos and other holdouts with various beefs about the bill.
Santos said last week that he is “solidly” against the bill that would raise the debt ceiling by a modest $1.5 trillion in exchange for harsh spending cuts and a grab-bag of GOP policy goals like work requirements for health benefits.
The embattled Santos, who has admitted lying about most of his life story, hasn’t laid out any specific demands for his vote. But he may be looking for McCarthy and other GOP establishment groups to avoid opposing his reelection next year.
Santos is already facing a House ethics probe and criminal investigations into potential campaign finance violations.
The debt ceiling proposal, which has no chance of even getting a hearing in the Democratic Senate, is packaged as the Republican opening salvo in the looming debt ceiling crisis with President Biden.
The vast majority of Republicans have quickly gotten in line behind the proposal, which aims to bolster McCarthy’s negotiating stand against the White House and congressional Democrats.
That includes newly elected moderate Republicans from the New York City suburbs like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who are facing an all-out Democratic push to oust them in 2024.
“The president must negotiate with the speaker,” Lawler said. “We must cut spending and we must not default.”
But McCarthy still has a heavy lift to close the deal, especially since he is asking colleagues to make a potentially dangerous vote for a bill that is purely symbolic.
Along with Santos, a handful of far right-wing Republicans are holding out against the bill, mostly because they oppose raising the debt ceiling on principle.
Some other lawmakers in the fractious GOP House have specific policy gripes, like the bill’s slashing subsidies for ethanol, which helps corn farmers in the Midwest.
Congress must pass an increase in the spending limit in coming weeks or the nation would default on its debt, a possibility that economists from across the political spectrum warn would be catastrophic.