Freedom Caucus member blasts Biden debt showdown in plea to GOP to stand ground

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Chip Roy: Why should I fund a bureaucracy that's at war with Americans?

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reacts to the Biden administrations handling of debt talks and the risk of a U.S. debt default on ‘Your World.’

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, sent a four-page memo to all House Republican members Wednesday in an apparent effort to keep the GOP together in "holding the line" with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is pressuring the White House to agree to lower spending limits in negotiating the debt ceiling. 

Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said in the memo that the GOP gives McCarthy "the strongest hand by: 1) making clear we are unified to hold the line; and 2) messaging the specific purposes behind the Limit, Save, Grow Act."

"While House Republicans are fighting for hard-working American families facing a woke, weaponized government at odds with our way of life, President Biden and Democrats have been dragging their feet for weeks to fight for rich liberal elitists who want more spending, more government, more corporate subsidies, and less freedom.," Roy said in the memo. 

The Limit, Save, Grow Act was passed by the House earlier this year and would lift the borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion while also rolling back key Biden administration initiatives and cutting the federal government’s discretionary levels to what they were in 2022.

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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, walks up the House steps of the Capitol May 18, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"We want to cut funding for the woke federal bureaucracy interfering with Americans’ ability to live free and prosper economically to pre-COVID levels, Democrats want to expand it. We are fighting for reliable energy and the working class, Democrats want to preserve IRA unreliable energy subsidies for the wealthy elite, corporations, and Chinese Communists," Roy stated in the memo.

"We are fighting to reassert Congress’ role over an executive branch pumping out new regulations that cost hundreds of billions, Democrats want to empower faceless bureaucrats," he said.

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In the memo, Roy outlined seven "reforms" the Republican measure would implement, the "failure to carry through" cost if Republicans were to cave, the "false criticism" of the reform and a "reality" check to the criticism. 

He said each of the reforms are "critical and none should be abandoned solely for the quest of a 'deal.'"

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, leaves a caucus meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill May 10, 2023, in Washington, D.C.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

One such reform, he said, is "Reform #1: Reduce FY 2024 discretionary spending to FY 2022 levels and cap future spending at 1% growth to cut the deficit and rein in the federal bureaucracy.

"This would cut $131 billion in discretionary spending in year one, save $3.6 trillion over a decade, and — most importantly — restrict the federal bureaucracy’s power to interfere with Americans’ ability to live free and prosper economically," Roy said.

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The "failure to carry through" on this reform would mean "continued expansive funding without constraint of the federal bureaucracy at odds with Americans," according to Roy.

The false criticism, Roy says, is this cut would "crush defense spending."

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, talks to reporters as he walks near the House chamber during the third day of elections for speaker of the house at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 5, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The "reality," Roy says, is the U.S. "could meet the FY2024 cap ($1.471trillion), while preserving at least the FY 2023 defense funding level ($858 billion) by cutting nondefense discretionary (NDD) funding to pre-COVID levels ($597 billion)."

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McCarthy's top negotiators, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., and Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., are meeting Wednesday at the White House with Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young. McCarthy told reporters Wednesday afternoon the two sides are still "far apart" after days of talks but said he is hopeful they can "make progress today."

The government is racing against the clock for when the U.S. is expected to run out of time to pay its outstanding debts, sometime in the coming weeks.