美国国家公共电台 NPR--Debt ceiling deal made it out of the rules committee and heads to the House floor

Debt ceiling deal made it out of the rules committee and heads to the House floor

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with GOP strategist Brendan Buck² about the path forward for the debt ceiling deal that's heading to the House floor today.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The government is counting down the days before it runs out of money to pay its bills. A bipartisan deal to avoid a debt default made it out of the House Rules Committee last night and is heading to the floor today. But it's unclear whether it's got the votes to pass. Members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus³ are bashing the compromise. South Carolina Congressman⁴ Ralph Norman said this on MORNING EDITION yesterday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

RALPH NORMAN: The bill, as is, is unacceptable.

FADEL: To understand what this means for Republican support for this bill, we turn now to GOP strategist Brendan Buck. He's advised congressional leaders for years, including House speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan. Good morning, Brendan.

BRENDAN BUCK: Good morning.

FADEL: So in your view, does House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have enough support from his party to get this deal to pass in the House today?

BUCK: Well, it's going to have to be a bipartisan vote, that's for sure, By the nature of a bipartisan agreement between the Republican speaker and a Democratic president, McCarthy is definitely going to be counting on a number of Democrats⁵ to help carry this over the line, to get the necessary support.

The real number that I think he's looking at is, does this vote get a majority of the Republican votes in the House? That's a real test for any speaker. Do you actually control your conference? And so that magic number for him is 112. And if he can get anything north of there, I think his political fortunes are OK. But again, that will require some cooperation and some Democrats to come along and help pass this. And I know a lot of them are grumpy about that. But I do expect, overall, between the two parties, there will be enough support, and we'll be able to send this over to the Senate later tonight.

FADEL: What do you think about McCarthy's grasp on leadership, you know? We heard South Carolina's Ralph Norman call this a bad deal. Another Freedom Caucus member said no Republican should vote for it. And Representative Dan Bishop⁶ of North Carolina went even further, saying he'd support ousting⁸ McCarthy over this bipartisan deal. Could this GOP, far-right rebellion cost McCarthy the speakership?

BUCK: It's certainly possible. But at this point, it doesn't feel like it's going to.

FADEL: OK.

BUCK: Yes, Dan Bishop threw that out there. And I haven't heard a whole lot of people backing him up on it. And some of the most likely people to jump in and echo those calls have sort of demurred⁹ and said, no, I don't think that that's time right now. Again, I think it comes back to whether or not he can get most Republicans to vote for something. And that's always been a principle that conservatives have said, don't bring anything up to the floor unless a majority of our party supports it. And this feels like it's headed in that direction.

Now, if it ends up short of there, you could see some trouble. But it feels like even the people who were most resistant¹⁰ to McCarthy becoming speaker have come around on him. He's very - from the very beginning of this conference, he spent a lot of time and effort building goodwill¹¹, putting points on the board, making them feel good. And it feels like he's won some converts. Perhaps the honeymoon¹² is over after this vote. But I don't think that his job is in any real danger at this point.

FADEL: Now, in order to become speaker, McCarthy went through 15 rounds of votes. And to finally get enough support, he agreed to let any lawmaker call a snap vote to try to oust⁷ him. Do you think that might come into play?

BUCK: Yeah. Certainly, Dan Bishop or any one single member can trigger a vote to remove him. And there's a narrow majority, you know? As speaker, you really never want to have to rely on the minority party to save your job. So he could only afford to lose four members on that vote So far, I think we've only got one member who has said he's going to do that. And there's a good chance that Democrats, I think, would come in at that point and also vote to preserve his job. It feels like this is the normal anger you get from conservatives when they have to do a bipartisan deal. And we see it every time we do a bipartisan fiscal¹³ measure. You hear the far right get really angry and upset and make threats. Very rarely do they actually ever follow through on these threats.

So I'm expecting that there will be a lot of fury and a lot of noise. But ultimately, this will move through the House. And ultimately, I think Kevin McCarthy is going to remain speaker for some time to be. This is actually a pretty impressive performance, I think, from him, navigating¹⁴ the difficulties of this. I know from experience passing a debt limit is one of the hardest things Republicans have to do. And I think he's actually managed to pull it off quite well.

FADEL: GOP strategist Brendan Buck. Thanks for joining us.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

3 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

4 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

7 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。

8 ousting   

驱逐( oust的现在分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• The resulting financial chaos led to the ousting of Bristol-Myers' s boss. 随后引发的财政混乱导致了百时美施贵宝的总裁下台。
• The ousting of the president has drawn widespread criticism across Latin America and the wider world. 洪都拉斯总统被驱逐时间引起拉丁美洲甚至全世界的广泛批评。

9 demurred   

v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• At first she demurred, but then finally agreed. 她开始表示反对，但最终还是同意了。
• They demurred at working on Sundays. 他们反对星期日工作。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

11 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

12 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

13 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

14 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网