The House Freedom Caucus got an unusual ally in Congress on Wednesday: Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Ocasio-Cortez joined Rep. Chip Roy, R-T.X., and the conservative caucus in condemning House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s budget deal with President Joe Biden, which passed in a split vote and has moved on to the U.S. Senate.\
Tensions ran high in the fight to pass the debt ceiling bill, as hard-right Republicans refused the deal — but McCarthy assembled enough Democratic Party votes to force a passage late Wednesday.
Ocasio-Cortez was not among those voting in favor… because there wasn’t enough spending. “I mean, where do we start? [No] clean debt ceiling. Work requirements. Cuts to programs,” she complained. I would never — I would never — vote for that,” she vowed.
On the other side, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus blasted the McCarthy debt limit deal and said it did little to curb out-of-control spending. The caucus tried to halt its passage.
The conservatives warned they may oust McCarthy from his speakership role over the compromise.
Overall, 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats voted against the bill, which passed 314-117 and move to the Senate before heading to the White House for Biden’s signature. The United States debt limit is now more than $34 trillion.
A parody account of Ocasio-Cortez went viral on Thursday praising McCarthy’s bill and called him the New York socialist’s “favorite Democrat.”
Take a look —
https://twitter.com/AOCpress/status/1664246111912054789
The Horn editorial team