Weigel

The Club for Growth Won’t Oppose the House GOP’s Watered-Down Debt Limit Hike

The Club for Growth, the campaign group most feared by Republicans, is giving them a pass if they vote for the debt limit increase tomorrow. In a statement, Club President Chris Chocola absolves members if they support the compromise, hammered out among Republicans during their retreat, that cuts no spending and only threatens to withhold pay if senators don’t pass a budget.

The Club for Growth will not oppose tomorrow’s vote on the debt ceiling. Club for Growth will, on the other hand, strongly oppose any efforts during the upcoming debate over the continuing resolution and sequester that fail to arrest out-of-control spending and put sensible limits on the growth of government.
Is this a shift? Boy howdy, is it ever. In the summer of 2011, John Boehner asked Republicans to back a debt limit hike that included $1.2 trillion of cuts for a $1 trillion increase. The Club opposed it.
The Club for Growth strongly opposes the Boehner Debt Limit plan. It cuts almost nothing immediately, it caps only discretionary spending, and it does not require passage of a balanced budget amendment. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, it simply doesn’t fix the country’s fiscal problems. We strongly oppose it, and we urge a no vote.
This new plan does even less to immediately cap spending, and it doesn’t add the Balanced Budget Amendment. There’s no way to read this other than as a climbdown.