Nonpartisan projections say Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, while control of the Senate, the upper house of Congress, is likely to hinge on a few key races in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. While President Joe Biden would have the power to veto Republican legislative proposals, the potential changing of the guard does raise questions about what a Republican-led House will mean for the next two years of Biden’s presidency — and post. Kevin McCarthy, who is widely expected to become the next Speaker of the House if Republicans take the lead in the lower chamber, has hinted in recent weeks about what he might have in store.
The debt ceiling is used as leverage
McCarthy has suggested he would use the government’s borrowing limit — commonly known as the “debt ceiling” — as leverage to advance Republican policy priorities, including deep spending cuts. “You can’t just keep going down the road to keep spending and adding to the debt. . . there comes a point in time where, OK, we’re going to give you more money, but you have to change your current behavior,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News last month. “We’re not just going to keep jacking up your credit card limit, are we? And we should seriously sit together and [figure out] where can we eliminate some waste?’ Recommended The debt ceiling sets a limit on how much the Treasury can borrow to pay for government spending. Once the cap is reached, lawmakers must lift the cap or risk defaulting the U.S. government — giving Republicans a key card to push their fiscal agenda, which is likely to include reforms to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.
Cuts in aid to Ukraine
McCarthy made headlines around the world when, in the same Punchbowl News interview, he suggested he would try to cut US aid to Ukraine. In a rare example of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans have approved tens of billions of dollars worth of aid to the country since the Russian invasion earlier this year. But McCarthy hinted that Republicans may be less likely to keep up the pace of spending going forward. “I think people are going to be in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t. . . It’s not a free blank check,” McCarthy said. “And then there’s the stuff [the Biden administration] does not do inside. We are not making the border and people are starting to weigh that. Ukraine is important, but at the same time it can’t be the only thing they do and it can’t be a blank check.” David Arakhamia, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party in parliament, told the Financial Times he was “shocked” to hear McCarthy’s comments, adding: “Just a few weeks ago, our delegation visited the US and had a meeting with Mr. McCarthy. They have assured us that bipartisan support for Ukraine in its war with Russia will remain a top priority even if they win the election.”
Republicans are pursuing their own investigations
Under Democratic leadership, House committees have launched a series of investigations, most notably the high-profile Jan. 6 panel investigating Donald Trump’s involvement in the 2021 attack on Capitol Hill. If Republicans take control of the House, it committee is likely to be disbanded, while other committees will also swing to Republicans. While caucuses would be held on Capitol Hill to install chairmen of those committees, there are indications that Republican committee chairs will open several of their own investigations into everything from the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic to the approval of the Justice Department about a federal raid this summer at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Republicans have questioned whether the younger Biden — who has openly struggled with drug addiction and faces a federal probe into his tax affairs and an arms deal — endangered national security through his business dealings in Ukraine and China. Recommended At the same time, several hardline Republican lawmakers — notably Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — have called for the impeachment of Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, among others. McCarthy has not backed such calls, saying the country “doesn’t like impeachment being used for political purposes”. When asked by CNN this week if impeachment was “on the table,” McCarthy replied, “You know what’s on the table? Accountability,” before ticking off a list of potential investigations into topics like US withdrawal from Afghanistan. “We will never use impeachment for political purposes,” he added, criticizing Democrats for leading two attempts to impeach and remove Trump from office. “That doesn’t mean that if something rises to the occasion, it won’t be used,” he added.
