Liberal group targets swing-district Republicans on debt ceiling vote

Liberal advocacy group Accountable.US is pressuring swing-district House Republicans to vote down Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bill to raise the debt ceiling and enact huge cuts to federal spending.

As part of a five-figure ad campaign launched Tuesday, the Democrat-aligned group warns that McCarthy’s plan would lead to fewer law enforcement officers and border patrol agents, reduce veterans’ access to health care services and cut off food assistance from one million seniors. 

The group will deploy mobile billboards displaying those messages outside the district offices of Reps. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.), and John Duarte (R-Calif.). House Democrats are targeting all of those lawmakers in the 2024 election. 

The pressure campaign comes as McCarthy aims to hold a vote this week on his proposal, which would cut federal spending by $4.5 trillion over the next decade in exchange for raising the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion. The increase would set the stage for another debt limit fight next year. 

Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig said the House GOP plan “hurts the very constituents House Republicans claim to support: law enforcement, veterans, seniors and workers.”

It’s one of the first ad campaigns pressuring Republicans to buck McCarthy’s agenda. House Majority Forward, a “dark money” group aligned with House Democrats, will run ads targeting some of the same lawmakers over the McCarthy bill this week, Politico reported.

McCarthy’s proposal is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate and will be used as a starting point for debt limit negotiations with President Biden. McCarthy insists he won’t raise the debt limit without cutting spending, while Biden has refused to tie the two together. 

The stalemate raises the likelihood of an unprecedented default this summer when the U.S. runs out of borrowing authority. Experts say a default would send the nation into a brutal recession, ravage social programs, raise borrowing costs for Americans and undermine global confidence in U.S. markets.