ANALYSIS: Debt Ceiling Is High Stakes, and a GOP Opportunity

With a 5 vote majority in the House, not much will likely change. But it's an opening for 2024.

President Joe Biden, left, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in file images. Getty Images

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has thrown down the gauntlet at President Joe Biden and the Democrats over the debt ceiling.

McCarthy has said he will extend the debt ceiling through May 2024, to $32.9 trillion, but only if the president and Congressional Democrats agree to:

• return roughly $50 to $60 billion of  unspent COVID-19 funding to the Treasury;

• return spending to 2022 levels;

• roll back the Inflation Reduction Act that passed last year;

• defund the planned “army” of IRS agents, as well as other funding for the agency; and

• mandate a work requirement for Food Stamp and Medicaid recipients.

McCarthy anticipates the House will pass his proposal sometime this week and move it over to the Senate.