With a government shutdown now seeming more likely with each passing day, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is demanding that President Joe Biden agree to meet with him and “renegotiate” the debt ceiling budget deal they reached in June, mainly because McCarthy is under pressure from right-wing hardliners in his caucus who are insisting that federal spending for the neediest Americans be slashed to the bone.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is urging the president not to agree to any meeting with McCarthy, and she also had some choice words for the Speaker that have gone viral.
On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez wrote:
“McCarthy already got his meeting w/ Biden and they struck a deal to keep gov open months ago. GOP held the entire US gov hostage in exchange for cuts & forced restart of student loan payments.
“Deal is done. Biden held his end. Nothing to relitigate. McCarthy can go pound sand.”
Hey, Kev: Go pound sand.
Later in the day Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez added a jab about “boy math” to counter a meme that circulated online over the summer referencing “girl math.”
“Boy math is needing 15 attempts to count the votes correctly to become Speaker and then shutting down the government 9 months later.”
The 15 votes refers to the ballots needed to elect McCarthy as speaker, a position he holds ever-so tenuously and could lose at any moment.
It remains to be seen if McCarthy can indeed procure the votes he needs to pass any legislation whatsoever, especially since the GOP has such a narrow margin in the House of Representatives.
The federal government will be shuttered on October 1 if the Speaker cannot cobble together an agreement. Considering that McCarthy is the weakest, most feckless House leader in history, there’s no need to be optimistic a deal will be struck.