leaders expressed confidence
that the deal would ultimately
pass.
Amna nawaz: More than two dozen
house Republicans say they will
not back the debt limit deal,
saying speaker Mccarthy made too
many concessions to the white
house during negotiations.
One of them is congressman Scott
Perry, chair of the house
freedom caucus. I spoke with him
earlier today.
Congressman Perry, welcome and
thanks for joining us. So
assuming a majority of the
democratic caucus will end up
supporting this bill, you would
need a significant chunk of your
conference to be able to sink
it. Do you have those votes?
What does >> Well, we're not
whipping against it right now.
We're informing the members,
which, look, they just found out
what was in this bill. The text
they found out about the bill
that it existed. That was on
Saturday night. The text came
out on Sunday evening. And so,
you know, into Monday, people
are reading it now. It's 100
pages. So it's not a big bill.
But you got to read through the
legislative language to see
where the money's coming from
and where it is going.
It can be very confusing. For
instance, in the bill that says
we're rescinding some Tobin
some covid but you would think
that that would go back to the
treasury to pay down the debt.
It's not going to the treasury.
We're doing what's called
banking it, which means we're
just putting it in another
account to spend it later. So
that's not really what people
signed up for. And there are
other things like the 87,000 irs
agents, $80 billion was
rescinding 1.4 billion of that.
Essentially or ostensibly, we're
told, to stop the irs from
hiring more people to to
investigate Americans. But they
keep basically the $78.6 billion
that they have in the bank that
was given in a lump sum
appropriation that they can
spend at any time.
So it really doesn't stop
anything. And so those are the
things that members are finding
out about. And when they find
out about them, they say, well,
I didn't sign up for this. I'm
not voting for this.
Amna nawaz: Well, you've made
very clear you don't support
this bill. And as we all know,
any member of the Republican
conference can move forward with
a motion to vacate and remove
speaker Mccarthy from the
speakership.
If you don't have the votes to
sink this bill and the bill does
move forward, would you move to
remove speaker Mccarthy?
>> Well, we're going to have to
have that discussion after this
is done, but we're not done yet.
This is in rules committee.
There still might be amendments
in the rules committee. It still
might not pass on the floor. And
so I'm never willing to really
handicap those kind of things
because you can get out ahead of
your skis pretty quickly and
then it's hard to reel things
back in. So right now we're
focused on on this and the debt
ceiling and the fact, quite
honestly, that the senate hasn't
passed anything still, you know,
is reluctant apparently to come
to work.
So the house has had to
negotiate against its own
position.
That's not where we should be.
We have passed a bill in the
house of representatives to deal
with this. We think it's high
time that the senate passes
something, even has a hearing or
even marks up rights that the
bill text of a bill down that
they can pass. Before we keep
asking house members, what are
you willing to give up to not
have this this circumstance on
this debt that we where we are
right now understand that this
this this offers unlimited
spending for the next two, two
years. So that's essentially, I
don't know, four or five, $6
trillion. We'll probably be at
$36 trillion in debt at the end
of this term because it is there
is no cap on this. There is no
limit whatsoever. This is
exactly what president Biden
said and demanded back in
January.
Amna nawaz: Well, congressman,
let me let me ask you let me ask
you, if I may, because I know
your time is limited. The senate
Republican leader, Mitch
Mcconnell, says that he backs
the bill.
You hailed Mr. Mccarthy for
winning concessions from the
white house and called on his
senate colleagues to move
forward quickly on this. But
again, if you do not have votes
to end this bill, I should
mention to you, your colleague,
chip Roy, had said that as part
of the deal for Mr. Mccarthy to
secure the speakership, he
agreed there needed to be
unanimous Republican consent on
the rules committee for a bill
to move forward. If that is true
and he does not have unanimous
consent and moves forward, would
you remove him from the
speakership?
>> Like I said, we're going to
we're not going to talk about
IFS right now. We're going to
talk about things we know for
sure. The rules committee is
happening right now. We're going
to wait and see how that plays
out. There might be a great
amendment that comes from that.
And so we're not going to we're
-- we are not going to handicap
things like that because it's
not productive. The American
people are tired of paying too
high prices for gasoline and for
groceries and everything they
buy. And it's all stemming from
this over spending at the
federal level. That's what we're
focused on right now. Once we
get done with that, then we can
come back and talk about other
things.
Amna nawaz: The timeline, sir,
is what it is, though. So in the
end, I have to ask, are you
essentially advocating for a
default here? You are mere days
away from that date so.
>> No, there's not going to be
any default. First of all,
number one, Janet Yellen has no
credibility in this. Not
actually. She started helping
out the inflation rise to the
level it is when she was at the
fed. Then she didn't see
inflation coming even as they
passed the $1.7 trillion
omnibus.
Amna nawaz: So if you say that
to me, you don't believe the
date that she's put forward. Is
that right?
>> First of all, I call that
into question. Second of all, we
know that June, all the
quarterly is going to come in.
The federal government is going
to be flush flush with revenues
that come in. So all we have to
do is get to the middle of the
month and that is that issue.
Amna nawaz: Congressman parry,
if I may, Goldman Sachs has put
forward June 8th or ninth as
their X day. Do you believe
their numbers?
>> They might be correct. I
don't know. But again, we can
stop all this with rescissions.
We could claw back the good
money, all of it, and put it
towards the debt. We can claw
back all that 80 billion from
the irs and put that towards the
debt immediately. We can do that
right tonight in the rules
committee and change the
trajectory of all this. And
that's the kind of stuff we're
looking for so that we provide
some space to negotiate and
where the senate can actually
pass a bill.
Amna nawaz: Speaker Mccarthy and
president Biden would say the
negotiating has already
happened.
These are the concessions. This
is where the two sides came
together. And they would point
out you don't have the votes to
kill this bill. What would you
say to that? Well.
>> Well, that might be true, but
the only way we're going to find
that out is to see the bill. But
these are folks that have passed
the bill. First of all,
president Biden isn't in the
legislature. He doesn't pass any
bills. And we know that this has
to go before the senate. And why
does everybody assume that the
senate is just going to pass
this just because Mitch
Mcconnell says so, it doesn't
mean that maybe Democrats are
unhappy over there. Certainly
Republicans probably aren't
thrilled over there. Once again,
the senate hasn't done its job.
And for there to be any real
negotiation between the two
sides and the two parties, it
requires the senate to pass a
bill.
Amna nawaz: Republican
congressman Scott Perry of
Pennsylvania, chair of the house
freedom caucus, thank you for
making the time to join us
today.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it.