Paul Ryan: Process on $8 Trillion Budget ‘Stinks,’ But Kevin McCarthy Backs Plan

The secret, top-level process used to create the federal budget for 2016 and 2017 really “stinks,” says Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is likely to replace Rep. John Boehner as House Speaker this week.

But he did not promise to vote against the $8 trillion plan.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who dropped his bid for Speaker of the House, backed the deal negotiated behind closed doors by House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, three other top congressional leaders and aides to President Barack Obama.

“Lots of times people don’t write about what we’ve been able to achieve” in curbing spending, McCarthy said on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning. “If you take those budget numbers for our 2011 [budget to] where we’d be today, with this budget agreement, we’re below that” spending target, he said.

McCarthy said that the GOP has been able to win spending curbs even with Obama as president.

“We’ve been able to fund the military in a much stronger position that needs to when we look at the way the world holds, but we’ve been able to do it in a fiscal manner to keep us under the limits than we had in our original budget. That’s an accomplishment. I think history will be kind to [Boehner] because he kept the word he’s always said, ‘Continue to do what’s right’ and that’s what he’s done. I want to thank the Speaker for his service.”

Ryan told reporters that he thought the process on the budget deal “stinks.”

The Club for Growth’s president, David McIntosh, and Heritage Action CEO Michael A. Needham, came out in opposition of the deal Tuesday morning, after the budget was released late Monday night:

“This budget and debt deal is being brokered by a lame duck speaker and a lame duck president. It represents the very worst of Washington – a last minute deal that increases spending and debt under the auspices of fiscal responsibility. If this deal moves forward, it will undermine efforts to unite the party by those promising to advance serious policy reforms.”

“The House should work to empower a new speaker to preserve the spending caps and fight for serious reforms contained in the budget. Heritage Action and the Club for Growth call on Chairman Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise to stop this zombie budget deal.”

According to statement from the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, the deal increases the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion and also increases spending by at least $80 billion in the next two years.