After 15 rounds of voting, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on January 7, 2023. Representative McCarthy’s delayed victory came after he made concessions with more hardline Republicans, in order to garner enough votes to win a majority. 

The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a 10-person majority, however, this majority consists of a diverse set of ideologies. 

“While ideologically, they’re very similar [viewpoints], they have different ideas over how the House should work and what the rules should be,” sophomore Vihaan Rathi said. This difference in opinion within the Republican majority may cause some difficulty in passing legislation. 

Adding to the division within the Republican majority in the House, the Senate currently has a Democratic majority. Therefore, if a bill manages to pass the House, it might face opposition in the Senate. 

“Just like the Democrats in 2018, Republicans are gonna start passing a lot of messaging bills, like high in the sky stuff that the, you know, the Senate will never pass, but messaging so you’re probably gonna see stuff on taxes, abortion, maybe kids in schools,” said senior Saahil Rao. 

The few bills that may pass the house will most likely not be beneficial. 

“Republican bills will maybe get through the house and then just fail the Senate, and the only real bipartisan things will be measures directed towards capitalistic subsidies for oil and gas companies, you know, helping pharmaceutical companies out–things that usually work against the common people and for larger corporations that both parties tend to support as well as you know, aid for Ukraine and these very uniting issues, “ Rathi said. 

With the arrival of a new speaker, a pressing issue comes to the forefront of Congress’ agenda: the debt limit. The debt limit is the limit on the amount of money that the United States government is allowed to borrow.

With a split Congress, it will be difficult for both parties to pass a deal. Although many Republicans want to, McCarthy has said that he will not accept cuts to Social Security and Medicaid. 

“A lot of these more hardline Republicans are trying to pass cuts to welfare programs that will help everyday Americans, and Democrats are not trying to cave on that. But then if there can’t be a compromised view, or any sort of debt ceiling increase, it will cause an economic catastrophe and that’s not really an understatement in any way. It would be pretty, pretty bad,” Rathi said. 

This show of moderacy in his conservatism may test his leadership as the Speaker of the House. 

“You need to just raise the debt ceiling to be able to even pay back like, interest on your existing debts on about new spending. So what I’m going to say is if Kevin McCarthy controls the caucus there, can you get the moderate votes to deliver this debt ceiling increase? Because he doesn’t want to see the United States default? So I’d say that’s going to be the biggest test of his leadership in this Congress,” Rao said. 

“I think that’s just a diversion from how dysfunctional our system is in general, McCarthy or not, or speakership or not. Congress itself does not do the work of the people it does not. It gives concessions, sometimes, to the working class, but it will never truly help us out as much as it is supposed to,” Rathi said. 

According to The New York Times, “McCarthy of California won his job by bowing to the demands of a group of far-right Republican dissidents.” The group of far-right Republicans in the House is commonly referred to as the Freedom Caucus. This caucus felt that they could not trust McCarthy, so for many of the first 14 rounds, they put their vote for Speaker of the House in other candidates. 

Eventually, McCarthy was able to convince enough members of the Freedom Caucus by compromising his views and promising them what they asked for. One of the requests included guaranteed appointments to the Rules committee. This committee controls floor debate on legislation and is essential to the functions of the House. 

A recent congressional issue that could be affected by the appointment of Kevin McCarthy is the United States government reaching the debt limit. This limit is set by Congress. This issue of the debt limit is one that will be on the agenda of the House. 

“Biden and McCarthy have to come to a deal on the debt ceiling. And if the United States defaults on its debt, it would basically be catastrophic for the economy, billions of dollars and jobs would be lost.” senior Saahil Rao explains. Additionally, if the House of Representatives is not able to get funding legislation passed through the democrat-controlled Senate, the government would shut down. 

Due to political splits, Congress may have trouble determining what to do with the debt limit. Should they increase the limit or suspend it again? In order to keep the economy and government stable, Kevin McCarthy must find a way to pass successful legislation. 

Regardless of what path Congress chooses, many economists are predicting that throughout 2023 Congress will be focusing on expenditures and the debt limit. 

“Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker of the house? It’s going to be interesting.” Saahil Rao said.