Ultraconservatives in the House have dominated the public discussion on the US debt ceiling, but Speaker Kevin McCarthy can’t afford to ignore GOP centrists if the country is to avoid a catastrophic payments default later this year.
Republican moderates are looking for bipartisan solutions to the debt-ceiling dilemma that would avoid the massive cuts to federal spending — including popular Social Security and Medicare programs — that some GOP members have demanded.
Their ideas, which are more likely to gain traction with Senate Democrats and the White House than with conservatives, include indexing discretionary spending to inflation; tying the debt ceiling to the country’s GDP; and small, across-the-board cuts to outlays. Discretionary spending excludes entitlement programs.
