Tea Party group opposes GOP debt limit bill

FreedomWorks announced Tuesday that it will actively oppose a House GOP measure to take the debt ceiling off the table until May, saying Republican leadership needs to “get serious.”

The Tea Party group’s broadside comes a day ahead of an expected vote on the debt ceiling measure and as the legislation appeared to pick up momentum, with a key conservative group and the White House saying they wouldn’t try to stand in the proposal’s way. 

But Dean Clancy, the legislative counsel at FreedomWorks, chastised Republicans for pushing for what he called a “clean” debt ceiling increase, and suggested that delaying the debt ceiling would make it harder in the long run to get the U.S. fiscal house in order. 

“This proposal is more of the same,” Clancy said in a statement. “Once again, Republican leadership is negotiating with itself to temporarily bail the big spenders out by lifting the U.S. debt limit for four months, with no immediate accompanying budget reforms or spending reductions.”

"Get serious, guys,” Clancy added, in a direct message to GOP leaders. “Do your jobs.”

Brent Bozell, another prominent conservative, said on Twitter that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was planning another “cave.”

The message from FreedomWorks circulated an hour or so after the Club for Growth, a prominent conservative group, said that it would not actively oppose the debt limit proposal, which would also withhold lawmaker pay if the House and Senate did not pass a budget by April 15. 

That statement likely gives GOP leaders some breathing room on the debt ceiling bill, which is expected to hit the floor on Wednesday.

The Club for Growth and other key groups on the right, like Heritage Action, either failed to embrace or outwardly came out against Boehner’s Plan B to avert the fiscal cliff in December

The Club for Growth and Heritage Action have said that they will continue to keep up the pressure on House Republicans on fiscal issues. Heritage Action has neither endorsed nor announced its opposition to the House debt limit proposal.