Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., does not plan to vote for the debt ceiling deal House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., struck with President Joe Biden because there are not enough "cuts or reforms" included to justify it, he told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"I'll be voting no today and the reason is it's going to raise our national debt by some $3-$4 trillion dollars with an unlimited debt-ceiling increase between now and January '25," Good told "National Report." "Basically as much as this Congress can come together and spend along with the administration, between now and the end of next year is how much the debt ceiling will be raised.
"I don't believe that we've got near enough in there, in terms of cuts or reforms, to in any way justify an unlimited debt ceiling increase," he continued. "This is essentially what the Democrats' position was back in January. They wanted an unconditional debt-ceiling increase.
"We passed our 'Limit, Save, Grow' bill in the Republican House, which had some real significant reforms and cuts that would have helped take a step toward fiscal solvency, and unfortunately just about all of that was jettisoned or discarded with the deal that was struck between House leadership and the White House."
When asked about the possibility of a default on the nation's debt if the debt-ceiling deal is not passed, Good said it is a "false choice to say it's this bill or it's no bill."
"We could have had some semblance of a compromise in between the 'Limit, Save, Grow' and this bill," he said. "Some would say, 'Oh, this bill doesn't do anything for Democrats.' It absolutely does. It raises the debt ceiling. It didn't add a bunch of new programs and a bunch of new spending for Democrats, but they would not have needed to negotiate for a debt-ceiling increase if they had the majority. They could try to accomplish that in the appropriations process."
"As we talk about a default, there isn't going to be a default," he continued. "There's no catastrophe that hits on June 1 or June 5 or June 8, whatever the day is. We've got some $400 billion a month, on average, coming into the Treasury. It only takes $70 billion to pay the interest on our debt, which is what prevents a true default. It just means the further that we were to go beyond the ability to continue to borrow and fund this government in deficit spending of about $100 billion a month, we couldn't do that until we did raise the debt ceiling."
Good said people should "watch how many Democrats vote for this bill."
"That will tell you whether or not this is a good bill," he said. "You're going to have a tremendous number of Democrats vote for this bill, because it really is doing everything that they want."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!