Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, says he’ll be pushing House Republicans to “unwind” parts of the Inflation Reduction Act as part of a deal that would raise the debt ceiling and cut federal spending.
Roy, a House Freedom Caucus member who’s been a central figure in the negotiations, told Fox News Digital he wants Republicans to strip “Green New Deal-type subsidies” from President Biden’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act passed last Congress.
“We have got to get the absurd subsidies that were put in place that would supercharge all the dollars for renewables, which are really, frankly, not reliable, which is really subsidizing China and undermining our growth — to be able to have a strong economy here based on our strength, which is exporting liquefied natural gas and all stuff that’s still good for the overall environment and climate,” Roy said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“And we just supercharged the exact opposite.
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U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, attends a press conference on the debt limit and the Freedom Caucus plan for spending reduction at the U.S. Capitol March 28, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
“While you’ve got a war going on, you know, you’re basically helping Putin, helping China. You’re helping everybody but American economic growth,” Roy added.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates railed against such a proposal in a statement Tuesday that said by targeting the Inflation Reduction Act, “ultra MAGA hardliners” like Roy are “threatening to hold Americans’ jobs and retirement savings hostage by engaging in the dangerous brinkmanship that presidents Reagan and Trump warned against.
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“Like even Donald Trump said in 2019 avoiding a catastrophic and unprecedented default is non-negotiable,” he said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced in a speech at the New York Stock Exchange Monday House Republicans will take a vote “in the coming weeks” that raises the debt ceiling for one year while capping federal spending at the fiscal year 2022 level. Experts say the U.S. has until roughly this summer to come up with a plan to address the debt limit before it is at risk of being unable to borrow more to pay the bills.
“Let me be clear: a no-strings-attached debt limit increase cannot pass. But since the president continues to hide, House Republicans will take action,” McCarthy said Monday, noting the White House’s refusal to negotiate a package that includes a debt ceiling hike and spending limits.
Rep Chip Roy, R-Texas, talks to reporters as he walks near the House chamber during the third day of elections for speaker of the house at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 5, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
McCarthy added the bill would limit subsequent spending increases to just 1% per year over a decade.
Roy said he agreed with “the overall tone” and “baseline” of McCarthy’s comments but said “the American people don’t want to see cuts in the ninth year. They want to see real cuts in the first year to wasteful spending.
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“It is becoming more and more clear to anybody watching that the president has completely abdicated his responsibility to sit down and responsibly figure out the direction of, of spending for our country committee.
“He alone is going to be the one that’s causing this to get closer and closer to the debt ceiling expiration date. Not us. We’ve been very clear that, you know, we’re not going to just give them a blank check for a debt ceiling increase. That’s been clear for two-plus months.”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, nominates Rep. Jim Jordan to be speaker of the house before the third round of voting in the House chamber Jan. 3, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Roy said Republicans have been “trying to work in good faith. But if Democrats aren’t going to sit down with us, then, you know, we’re going to send something over that’s responsible, and they can choke on it.
“We’re talking about demanding debt ceiling changes. Why is that? Because it allows us to spend at 2023 defense levels, which was just agreed upon in the old, frankly, bloated bipartisan omnibus bill. But it allows us to still spend at just before pre-COVID levels, which happens to be dollar-for-dollar in line with what 2024 levels were under a President Obama’s last budget,” Roy said.
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“My main point is there’s hardly anything radical about what we’re suggesting by returning to what we were literally spending four months ago, at ’22 levels.
“We’re going to focus on that, but there’s other things … if you get some upfront spending cuts, plus the 2022 levels, then, you know, you might be cooking with peanut oil.”
