Marjorie Taylor Greene pays $100,000 for a CHAPSTICK used by Kevin McCarthy in a bizarre auction

Republicans took part in a bizarre fundraising auction on Tuesday as quarreling lawmakers are still unable to strike a debt deal to avoid a catastrophic US default.

An unprecedented government failure to pay its debt would raise interest rates and weaken the dollar. It is estimated that up to 7 million jobs could be lost, mortgage rates could skyrocket, and Social Security could be delayed.

Congress and the White House are vying for a deal on the $31 trillion spending cap, which limits how much the US can borrow.

Still, GOP lawmakers seemed unperturbed as they joined the 15-minute fundraiser at their weekly meeting behind closed doors.

Ukrainian Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene splashed out an eye-watering $100,000 on a chapstick used by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The 48-year-old, who has been chasing pro-Russian talking points over Vladimir Putin’s invasion, placed the winning bid after McCarthy offered to dine with the winner and any supporters of their choice.

The pair have formed a very close friendship since the Georgia legislature supported McCarthy’s bid for the position of House Speaker.

“I am honored to be able to donate $100,000 to the [National Republican Congressional Committee] to help the Republicans increase our majority in 2024 and beat the Democrats. My constituents will be honored to pay a visit to speaker Kevin McCarthy, who we all think is doing a great job,” Greene said in a statement.

Other members who bid included Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), and Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

Democrats struck at the fundraising stunt after the US Treasury Department said an agreement must be reached before June 1 to avoid default, a date disputed by some Republicans.

‘She [are] doing this insane chapstick shit while the country teeters on default. Wild,” tweeted far-left firefighter Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congressman representing Minnesota.

It came as negotiators for President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy exchanged more austerity ideas at the Capitol on Tuesday.

But Republicans warned of a “lack of urgency” at the White House to resolve the deadlock in time to avoid a potentially chaotic federal bankruptcy.

“We’re not there yet,” McCarthy said at the Capitol, reiterating that he won’t file a bill “that doesn’t spend less than we spent this year.”

He told reporters the teams are looking at “creative” ways to reverse spending that all parties can accept.

“I believe we can still get there — and we can get there before June 1,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said in the afternoon.

Negotiations to raise the country’s debt limit, now at $31 trillion, dragged into a third week and should never have reached this point – a crisis in the making.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that Biden was not acting urgently. “He wants this to happen as soon as possible,” she said.

The White House insisted early on that it was unwilling to negotiate the need to pay the country’s bills, demanding that Congress simply lift the ceiling, as it has done many times before with no strings attached.

But the newly elected speaker at an Oval Office meeting in February urged the president to come to the negotiating table on a budget package that would cut spending to reduce mounting deficits in the post-COVID era in exchange for the mood to allow for future debt.

Both men said after a crucial meeting at the White House late Monday — after the president returned from the G7 summit in Japan — the talks were productive.

But with limited time to reach an agreement, they are working to reach a compromise that can be quickly approved by the Republican House and Democratic Senate and signed into law.

The negotiations aim to agree on a limit for the financial year 2024.

Republicans have brushed aside their demand to roll back spending to 2022 levels, but say government spending should be lower next year than it is today.

The White House is instead offering to freeze spending at current 2023 numbers.

“We’re sticking to the speaker’s red line,” said a leading Republican negotiator, Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana.

“That is we won’t make a deal unless it spends less money than we spend this year,” he added.

The White House continues to insist that deficits can be reduced by ending tax breaks for wealthier households and some businesses.

But McCarthy said he told the president at their February meeting that raising revenue from tax hikes is off the table.

Negotiators are also now debating the length of a one percent cap on annual spending growth going forward, with Republicans cutting their demand for a ten-year cap to six years, but the White House is only offering one year , for 2025.

Typically, the debt ceiling is lifted for the duration of a budget deal, and in these negotiations the White House is fishing for a two-year deal that would last past the presidential election.

Another key Republican negotiator, Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who accompanied the speaker in the Oval Office Monday night, said, “What I feel from the White House is a lack of urgency.”

But on the Senate side, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, “Look, I think everyone needs to relax.”

Traveling in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell said of the back and forth, “This isn’t that unusual.”

However, time is running out. The House speaker promised lawmakers he will abide by the rule of posting any bill 72 hours before a vote, making any action questionable until the weekend — just days before the potential deadline. The Senate would also have to pass the package before it can go to Biden’s desk to be signed.

McCarthy faces a far-right wing in his own party that is likely to reject any deal, and that has led some Democrats to encourage Biden to oppose any compromise with the Republicans and simply invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling. raise alone. an unprecedented and legally fraught move that the president has resisted for the time being.

On Tuesday, the leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus Rep. Scott Perry: “We all want to stick together. But again, it sticks together around the right thing.”

He and others are skeptical of the June 1 deadline, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, when “it is very likely” that the government will not be able to pay all of the country’s bills.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday it is in close contact with federal agencies about their planned spending while monitoring cash flows.

While negotiators focus on the more than $100 billion difference between the 2022 and 2023 spending plans as a place to cut spending, other priorities Republicans are pushing as part of the deal remain on the table.

Republicans also want to strengthen job requirements for state aid to Medicaid health program recipients, though the Biden administration has countered that millions of people could lose their coverage.

The GOP also wants fresh cuts to food aid by limiting states’ ability to waive job requirements in places with high unemployment. But Democrats have said any changes to job requirements are no start.

GOP lawmakers are also seeking cuts in IRS funding and, by saving defense and veterans bills from cuts, would shift most of the cuts to other federal programs.

The White House has countered this by leveling defense and non-defense spending next year, which would save $90 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $1 trillion over 10 years.

All parties have looked at the package’s potential to include a framework to relax federal regulations and accelerate energy project development.

They will almost certainly get back some $30 billion in unused COVID-19 funds now that the pandemic emergency has been officially lifted.