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Club for Growth: GOP 'hypocrisy' upcoming on debt-limit vote
The fiscally conservative Club for Growth is not letting congressional Republicans off the hook for ultimately backing a deal to raise the federal debt limit.
On Wednesday, the House is expected to hold a largely symbolic vote on whether to raise the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion, with a similar vote to come in the Senate in the near future. Republicans are expected to vote en masse against the resolution, but the group is already seeking to deflate "self-congratulatory" comments by GOP lawmakers that made the increase possible in the first place.
"The hypocrisy of many of these so-called 'tea party conservatives' will be on full display," wrote Barney Keller, spokesman for the group, in a note to reporters. "Please feel free to ask any of the [listed] Republicans who express their outrage over a $1.2 trillion debt limit increase why they voted for the law that allowed the debt limit increase in the first place."
Under the debt-limit deal struck this summer, the president receives an increase to the debt ceiling sufficient to keep the government operating through the 2012 election in three chunks. The first was provided as soon as the deal was made law, while the other two could be requested once the government came within $100 billion of its borrowing limit. The president made the first request in September, and the second request, worth $1.2 trillion, came earlier this month.
Those increases can only be blocked if both chambers pass a measure disapproving of the hike, and then overcomes a presidential veto of the measure. The fact that Democrats still retain control in the Senate has made such disapproval measures largely symbolic.
With that in mind, the Club for Growth does not want to see Republican lawmakers that supported the original deal making those hikes a near-certainty patting themselves on the back for what is effectively a meaningless vote.
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