Montana, Wyoming reps vote against debt ceiling bill

The debt ceiling bill passed the full house, 314-117, on Wednesday night.

The deal was struck late Saturday.

The legislation did face opposition from the two representatives from Montana and the one from Wyoming.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., representing the eastern part of the state, voted against the debt ceiling bill and was among 35 representatives who signed a letter to Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“What we saw was again, a reversion back to the swamp tactics where the speaker went behind closed doors with the president and a handful of others and they developed a piece of legislation that doesn’t contain any of those provisions and brought it back,” Rosendale said. “This is a whole new bill.”

Rosendale says the debt ceiling will increase by at least $4 trillion.

He says it does not eliminate 87,000 IRS agents, the inflation Reduction Act with green energy subsidies and the $400 billion student loan redistribution program.

“They have already made the deal with the Democrats to to enrich themselves and to sell the American people down the river,” Rosendale said.

“For those who are afraid that they’re going to get audited because the President wants to have 87,000 new IRS agents, right now he has zero,” said Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “We took every single dollar they were going to hire somebody this year away.”

Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., wanted to see more cuts.

“And the other thing is that I don’t like is that we are suspending the debt limit,” Hageman said. “So it is going to be whatever is spent between now and January 1 2025.”

Hageman said it’s not know what the debt increase would be.

She does not trust the deadline of June 5, which was announced as the date when the U.S. would not be able to pay its debts if the the ceiling was not raised.

“It’s Democrats who have always been clear, we will not allow this country to suffer a devastating default,” said Rep. Katherine Clark, R-Mass.

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., the western Montana representative, sent a prepared statement.

“We have to look out for number one, the Constitution number two, Montana,” Zinke said. “This bill doesn’t meet the bell on either point.

“The people of Wyoming are very opposed to this particular bill,” Hageman said.

“This legislation absolutely is an example of all of the worst that Washington has to offer,” Rosendale said.