GOP’s McCarthy Says Biden Spending Will Spend ‘On My Corpse’

Minority Parliamentary Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday vowed to do everything in his power to stop Congressional Democrats from passing the multibillion-dollar infrastructure and social spending plans backed by President Joe Biden.

But now that House Democrats appeared to have resolved their differences and voted to move these plans forward, it’s unclear what exactly McCarthy can do.

“This will be over my corpse, because I will do everything in our power to stop it,” the Republican leader said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when asked if he expected it. that billions of new spending be passed by Congress by September. .

Pressed on what this opposition would entail, McCarthy suggested that two conservative-leaning Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, could possibly “slow him down.”

He also spoke out against a group of moderate House Democrats who had previously expressed concerns about the $ 3.5 trillion budget proposal, but who voted together with the party on Tuesday night to move it forward.

“Before that, I thought it was possible to stop it,” McCarthy said earlier in the interview.

McCarthy accused Democrats of fully embracing socialism after Tuesday’s party line vote. The centrists who have “folded”, he said, “will no longer be elected”.

The remarks come just a year away from the 2022 midterm election, when Democrats hope to hang on to their slim majority in Congress and Republicans aim to regain control of the House.

McCarthy also reaffirmed his opposition to the Senate infrastructure plan, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Supports.

When asked if he could derail this bipartisan $ 1,000 billion bill, McCarthy said, “I don’t know yet, until the vote is taken.”

McCarthy spokespeople did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for additional information on its strategy going forward.

The procedural motion, which passed 220-212 Tuesday night in a special session called over the August recess, allows Democrats to write and approve the massive spending bill without Republicans.

It also includes a non-binding pledge for the House, led by President Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., To vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27. The deadline was meant to appease the nine centrist Democrats who wanted to vote on infrastructure first. bill, then consider the partisan budget resolution.