WASHINGTON — House conservatives ratcheted up pressure on Speaker Kevin McCarthy to hold firm in talks over raising the debt ceiling just days before a potentially catastrophic U.S. default.
The campaign from his right flank thrusts McCarthy into a politically tenuous position that threatens his speakership as the U.S. veers closer to June 1, the date by which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the US could run out of money to pay all its bills.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas wrote a letter to fellow Republicans urging them to keep up demands that any increase in the debt ceiling must come with promises of significant spending cuts. He said all the elements of their proposal, passed last month, “are critical and none should be abandoned solely for the quest of a ‘deal.’”
