Democrats Pledge To Protect McCarthy From His Party If He'll Budge On Debt Ceiling

Democrats in the House are letting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy know that they will have his back if he turns against his Party and agrees to budge on the debt ceiling. This is a big gamble for both parties, with McCarthy having the most to lose no matter how this eventually plays out. But Democrats shouldn't rush to defend McCarthy, as they've been burned by deals with Republicans in the past. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

According to a new report from Politico this week, Democrats in the House of Representatives, specifically the uh, centrist with the Problem Solvers Caucus, are attempting to cut a special deal with Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House. They're telling McCarthy that if you play ball with us, with the Democrats, with President Biden, you do whatever you have to do to increase the debt limit. So we do not hit that default date, which is coming up very quickly. You keep this government and this country functioning, we avoid the default and we the Democrats, we'll do whatever we have to do to make sure that you do not lose your job as Speaker of the House. Essentially, the Democrats are attempting to make a deal with the devil to save his position as the gatekeeper of hell. But sometimes you gotta do it right. I mean, we have to understand that if this country goes into default, not only is it going to send our economy immediately down the toilet, but it is going to have international RAM ramifications.

The global economy is going to suffer tremendously. If the United States defaults on our debts, millions of people, when we hit that, you know, drop dead date, millions of people immediately get furloughed in the United States, meaning they temporarily at least do not have a job and do not get paid. Government programs will no longer be funded. The military may not get paid. National parks will shut down. Some of us who have scheduled vacations to national parks in July are a little concerned about that because we wanted to show our kids the Grand Canyon. But is it worth it? Right? I mean, I don't want the government to shut down. I would love for a debt ceiling resolution to happen right this second and then boom, we don't have to talk about it till the next time we come to a debt limit showdown. But will Democrats regret telling Kevin McCarthy that we will save your butt if you just go along with us and give us a clean debt ceiling Bill?

I think yes. I think Democrats have obviously been burned before by deals they've made with Republicans. Mitch McConnell, I am looking at you with pretty much every single deal you've ever made with the Democrats. You've gone back on it, you've renegotiated, you've just outright not gone along with it after agreeing to it. So Democrats have been burned plenty of times in the past. I have no reason to think that Kevin McCarthy wouldn't do the same thing to them now. Plus you also gotta factor in, can we get this done without McCarthy? Can there be enough pressure on McCarthy to avoid this shutdown and default without having to promise to

Protect his job? Now we have seen the negotiations taking place with the White House so far not making any progress. Kevin McCarthy is actually doubling down on work requirements for government aid programs. Biden has signaled that maybe he's okay with that. So it seems right now, like the Democrats are the ones making all the concessions and that's not okay, especially given the concessions that are being made. So maybe it is time to reach out and make a deal with the devil. Maybe it is time for Democrats to go firm with McCarthy and be like, we will not let them vote you out. Which by the way, they have the power to do because McCarthy made that deal with the MAGA Republicans to become the speaker in the first place. But we've gotta avoid this shutdown. We have gotta avoid sending the global economy into a tailspin.