Fox News pundit Geraldo Rivera has voiced his strong approval of the tentative debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and has scolded its critics, telling them, “It Is called compromise.”
“To opponents of the not-so-grand compromise that avoids a catastrophic debt default-It is called compromise because it’s just good enough for both sides. Congratulations to negotiators and thank you for defying your crazies,” Rivera wrote on Twitter early Sunday.
Rivera’s comment comes after several House Republicans voiced their frustration with the deal and with McCarthy, who in January was named House Speaker after 15 rounds of voting as he struggled to unite moderate and far-right Republicans in his narrow House majority.
While McCarthy claimed that the deal includes “historic reductions in spending” and “consequential reforms,” several members of the House Freedom Caucus took to Twitter and slammed the reported plan to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion even as McCarthy said in a press conference that “95%” of House Republicans were “overwhelmingly excited” by the deal.
“You can count me as a NO on this deal,” tweeted Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). “We can do better.”
“We need to get back to reality and stop spending money out of control,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said on CNN. “That’s the bottom line. And if it takes taking a vote, I voted to shut the government down under Trump, and I’d do it under Biden.”
Democrats have not been as outspoken on their thoughts on the deal yet as details are still to come, but Congressional Progressive Chair Pramila Jayapal said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that she can’t guarantee that Biden will get progressive support on the deal until her caucus learns more about how the deal will affect work requirements for food stamp programs.
“It is really unfortunate that the president opened the door to this, and while at the end of the day, you know, perhaps this will – because of the exemptions – perhaps it will be OK, I can’t commit to that. I really don’t know,” Jayapal said.
