McCarthy tries to unite House Republicans around debt ceiling proposal – live

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Senate Democrats have demanded answers from the supreme court after a series of reports indicating at least two justices have relationships with parties interested in the court’s decisions that they did not disclose.

But the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said on the floor today that the court continues to have his confidence:

McConnell has played a major role in the creation of the court’s current six-justice conservative majority, beginning in 2016, when he blocked Barack Obama’s appointment of a new supreme court justice. That paid off when Donald Trump won the White House and appointed conservative Neil Gorsuch, the first of three appointments he would make. The trio were among the signatories of last year’s decision overturning Roe v Wade, along with other decisions seen as victories for the political right.

The House Democratic minority, unsurprisingly, wants nothing to do with the Republican debt limit bill.

Their leadership said as much at a press conference this morning, as Politico reports:

The party’s rank-and-file lawmakers have also signed on to a letter urging speaker Kevin McCarthy to “uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America by allowing prompt floor consideration of legislation to raise the debt ceiling without any extraneous policies attached.”

House speaker Kevin McCarthy fired back at the White House over its strenuous disapproval of the bill Republicans seem set to pass in the House to raise the debt ceiling while slashing spending.

Here’s the word, from McCarthy’s deputy spokesman Chad Gilmartin:

President Biden’s reckless spending has already threatened the financial well-being of every American family, and now his irresponsible refusal to negotiate with Speaker McCarthy threatens the entire American economy with the first default in our history. House Republicans have the only plan that responsibly raises the debt ceiling and avoids a default while growing the economy and making us less dependent on China. Biden said it was his ‘great honor’ to negotiate debt ceiling agreements before — he should honor the American people today by doing his job and coming to the table again.”

In New York City, the trial of a civil lawsuit brought against Donald Trump by author E Jean Carroll alleging rape continues today. Here’s the latest on the legal entanglement, which is one of many facing the former president, from the Guardian’s Chris McGreal:

E Jean Carroll, the advice columnist suing Donald Trump for rape, is expected to testify on Wednesday in the civil trial of the former president for alleged battery and defamation.

The trial opened on Tuesday with Carroll’s lawyer, Shawn Crowley, telling the jury of three women and six men she was seeking “to clear her name, to pursue justice and to get her life back”.

Carroll alleges the former president raped her in a New York department store changing room in 1996, then attempted to “destroy her” by accusing her of lying when she went public years later.

Joe Tacopina, representing Trump, told the jury he will show that Carroll conspired with other women to falsely accuse the former president of sexual assault because they “hate” him.

In a statement that is not at all a surprise, the White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt has slammed the Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending.

Here’s what LaBolt says of the bill, which he calls the “Cut Growth Act”:

Speaker McCarthy has cut a deal with the most extreme MAGA elements of his party to accelerate taking food assistance from hundreds of thousands of older Americans and to carve out one industry from his draconian cuts without making a single change to provisions that will strip away health care services for veterans, cut access to Meals on Wheels, eliminate health care coverage for millions of Americans, and ship manufacturing jobs overseas. House Republicans are selling out hard-working Americans in order to defend their top priority: restoring the Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations at a cost of over $3 trillion. President Biden will never sacrifice opportunity and economic security for working and middle-class families in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations. Budgets are a statement of values — and House Republicans have made clear who they are fighting for.

House Republicans optimistic about debt ceiling passage

House Republican leadership appears to have convinced enough members to support its proposal raising the debt ceiling while instituting a number of conservative priorities, including spending cuts, Politico reports:

This is but the latest salvo in what will probably be a drawn-out campaign to win congressional approval of an increase. The White House has said it will only accept an increase of the debt limit without preconditions, while the GOP measure includes all kinds of other provisions, including cuts to government spending and a block on Joe Biden’s effort to relieve some student debt.

A transgender lawmaker in Montana who has been prevented from speaking on the floor of the state House of Representatives says the chamber’s Republican leadership will try to censure or expel her:

Since last week, first-term Democrat Zooey Zephyr has not been allowed to speak on the House floor after Republican leaders accused her of making disrespectful comments. A group of conservative lawmakers in the chamber has demanded her censure, with a letter that misgendered Zephyr, the first openly trans woman elected to Montana’s legislature. Read more about the standoff here:

As we wait to see if House Republicans have their ducks in a row, the chief justice of the supreme court yesterday declined an invitation from Senate Democrats to testify about the court’s ethics, after a series of reports showed links between two conservative justices and parties with interests in the court. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly:

Democrats and progressives reacted angrily after John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, declined an invitation to testify before the Senate judiciary committee about corruption allegations against members of his court.

Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut senator, said: “The marble pillars of the supreme court and platitudes about its independence no longer provide refuge. He must face the nation.”

Sheldon Whitehouse, from Rhode Island, said: “The gaping hole in today’s response from Roberts … is that it overlooks the complete failure of process regarding ethics questions involving the justices. When there’s no ref, there’s no rule.”

To Democrats, GOP debt ceiling bill is 'DOA'

There’s still substantial uncertainty over whether enough House Republicans will vote for the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which raises the debt ceiling and cuts spending. They are meeting right now at the Capitol, so we may have a better idea of where things stand within the hour.

Less murky is what Democrats think of the bill. “It might as well be called the Default On America Act because that’s exactly what it is: DOA,” declared the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer yesterday. And even if it somehow made it through that chamber, the White House said Joe Biden would veto it upon arrival at his desk.

Despite the bluster, the stakes remain the same as they have all year. The US government hit its legal borrowing limit in January, and is currently funding its operations with the cash it has on hand. Sometime soon, probably early June, that cash will be exhausted, and the government will have to be able to borrow more money, or default on its obligations, such as bond payments, or salaries for its workers. America has never defaulted before and economists generally believe doing so could spark a financial calamity.

After night of negotiating, does GOP have votes for debt limit bill?

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives were up into the wee hours of Wednesday mornings negotiating among themselves to clinch the votes needed to pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would increase the debt ceiling while also slashing government spending and enacting a number of conservative policies. Democrats will not vote for it and it will not pass the Senate, which they control, at least without substantial changes. So, the question today is: did speaker Kevin McCarthy succeed at convincing enough members of his small and fractious Republican majority to vote for the bill? Will it even be voted on today? Follow this blog to find out.

Here’s what else is going on today:

• The Senate health, education and labor committee will vote on the nomination of Julie Su to serve as labor secretary, but it’s unclear if she has the votes to be confirmed by the whole chamber.

• Joe Biden will host South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House, where they’ll have a joint press conference (rare for Biden) at 12:30 pm eastern time and then a state dinner in the evening.

• Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson will formally announce his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination at 11:05 am.