Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, California) wants to appease the conservatives who are agitating for him by keeping federal spending next year at the same level as last year.

It’s not going so well.

McCarthy and other GOP leaders were accused by a long list of conservatives this week of using “gimmicks,” to give the false impression they are cutting back 2024 expenditures to levels of 2022, instead of adopting fundamental budget changes that will realize these reductions and reduce deficit spending in the long term.

Hard-liners have already threatened to oppose spending bills from their own party when they reach the House floor in later this year. This will undermine the Republicans’ leverage as the budget battle looms and increase the likelihood of a shutdown.

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The Speaker would be under immense pressure in the coming fight over funding for government to maintain the spending limit. He is already under fire by conservatives because of his handling the Debt Ceiling debate.

Andy Biggs, former leader of the extreme right Freedom Caucus in Arizona, said on Thursday that “he is not talking about ’22 levels of spending; he is doing ’22 levels of spending.” “Talk is cheap.”

Biggs, along with a number other conservatives, fear that GOP appropriators will use a budgetary instrument known as a “rescission” in the draft of their spending bills for 2024. Rescissions are essentially a clawback of spending that Congress had already appropriated for programs in the future. This allows appropriators claim to be funding government at a certain level, while actually spending another. Hard-liners claim that this mechanism will result in higher deficits than what they are willing to accept.

Biggs said that the idea that we would mark to 2022 but then buy marks up to 2023 with rescissions was “dishonest”.

Rep. Ken Buck, a Freedom Caucus Member from Colorado, also agreed.

“My understanding is that they will use ’23 number, and through rescissions get back to the ’22 numbers.” Buck explained that if the rescission is not granted, they will not be able to get the 22 number. Buck said, “The predicate was, ‘We are going to do this using rescissions’, but then the rescissions didn’t happen and everyone says, Well, that wasn’t my fault’.”

Buck stated that he hadn’t voted on an appropriations bill in “a long time” and that if there aren’t more drastic cuts or structural changes, then he will likely vote against this year’s bills as well.

He said, “I don’t see much difference between going off a cliff with the ’22 speed and the ’23 speed.”

McCarthy’s opposition is important because Democrats are already upset that he is targeting spending caps for 2024 below those negotiated by President Biden and McCarthy in the debt ceiling agreement this month. They are vowing to fight any appropriations bill that falls below these figures, leaving McCarthy little room for GOP defections due to the Republicans’ slim House majorities.

Hakeem Jeffreys (D-NY), House Minority leader, told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday that “we believe a resolution has been reached and voted upon in a bipartisan manner.”

What was the point of it all?

McCarthy’s battle with conservatives who are hard-liners has been centered on the issue of government expenditures. In January, the hard-liners tried to get McCarthy to promise to reduce 2024 spending to levels of 2022 — a cut of about $130 billion compared to current spending. As part of the debt ceiling agreement between McCarthy and Biden this month, the conservatives were furious when next year’s government spending was above that figure. It is essentially frozen at levels from 2023 with a 1% increase scheduled for 2025.

McCarthy responded by saying that the figure he agreed with Biden on was only a ceiling and not an objective. McCarthy has instructed appropriators that they should target funding below the cap in 2024. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, chairwoman of Appropriations Committee announced this week she would do so.

Granger stated in a Monday statement that “the Fiscal Responsibility Act established a topline budget cap, which is a ceiling and not a flooring for Fiscal Year 2020 bills.” “That’s why I will take this opportunity to mark up appropriations bills which limit new spending at the Fiscal Year 2020 topline level.”

But the conservatives remain unsure.

Granger’s statement was lauded by Bob Good, R-Va. He quickly added: “But what I hear,” he said, “is that there is an intention to claim the 2022 levels, then use rescissions in order to bring it up to 2023 and claim that this was a win.”

He said: “We should be using targeted cuts and cancellations to reduce the levels to 2022, not just pretending to have 2022 levels with cancellations.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., delivered a similar message this week. He said that the main issue was “the paradigm of what constitutes spending levels in 2022.”

“We don’t believe you should be able buy your way to those spending levels through rescissions. We believe that you should appropriate that level. Gaetz explained that if the only way to reach the levels of 2022 is to rescind, the budgetary process will be devoid of programmatic reforms.

He continued, “My concern is that [Granger]’s statement still seems to be a term for art rather than math. “I am concerned that Chair Granger’s statement shows a willingness to reach 2022 levels only through rescissions. This is not something my crew will be happy with.”

Granger’s and McCarthy’s offices did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

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McCarthy’s ability, in light of the conservative criticisms, to maintain the confidence and support of his restive conference as he negotiates with Democrats on funding the government to prevent a shutdown while maintaining the confidence and support of the restive conference has been questioned. The Speaker said that the hardliners were being unrealistic in their view of governing a divided Washington, but his arguments failed to convince those conservatives.

Gaetz stated that “nobody wants to see a government shutdown.” “But we won’t vote for deception and budgetary gimmicks as a way to fund the government.”