The Progressive Populist Today Blog: Editorial: Chaos Rules House

Friday, October 13, 2023

Editorial: Chaos Rules House

The last straw for the Republican Chaos Caucus occurred Sept. 30, when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy let a stopgap funding resolution make it to the House floor that kept the government open into the new fiscal year, with more Democratic than Republican votes.

McCarthy had been on a short leash from the far-right “Freedom Caucus” after it took 15 votes over four days in January to elect him as speaker, after the California Republican agreed to a change in House rules allowing any member of the House to call for a motion to remove the speaker. McCarthy generally adhered to right-wing priorities, but after a long standoff this past spring risked a default on the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt, McCarthy in May alienated Republican hardliners when he agreed with President Joe Biden on increases in the debt to accommodate current spending levels for the next fiscal year and limit non-defense spending to no more than a 1% increase in fiscal year 2025, heading into the election.

Members of the Freedom Caucus denounced the debt ceiling compromise, which they claimed didn’t go far enough to cut spending. They said it marked a “betrayal” of his commitment to their caucus and 79 Republicans voted against raising the debt limit, which passed 314-117 May 31.

McCarthy reneged on his deal with Biden when the House started drafting appropriations bills calling for deep cuts in domestic social spending and defunding the Department of Justice. He also approved House committees to investigate the state and federal investigations of former President Donald Trump’s activities, which have led to indictments on 91 felony counts in state and federal courts, and he reneged on his earlier promise to hold a vote on launching an impeachment inquiry against President Biden; lacking the votes, he ordered an inquiry to proceed on his own authority, although the allegations Republicans have raised so far have proven to be unfounded.

Trump urged McCarthy and the Chaos Caucasians to push harder against Biden and the Democratic-controlled Senate and force the government shutdown, in an effort to stop the prosecution of Trump by federal prosecutor Jack Smith.

Right-wingers were adamant that McCarthy wait for votes on the 12 separate funding bills, but no bills were approved in the days before the budget ran out Sept. 30, as Republicans were hung up over how deep the cuts should be, so McCarthy proceeded with the stopgap measure, which again infuriated right-wingers. Then, McCarthy accused Democrats of resisting the budget resolution, when they asked for 90 minutes to read it, causing suspicion among Democratic reps that it was not as “clean” as McCarthy claimed. McCarthy also distanced himself from reports that he had made a private pledge with Biden for legislation to fund more military support for Ukraine. The resolution passed 335-91 on Sept. 30, letting the government stay open, but 90 Republicans voting against the resolution,

With the narrow 221-212 Republican majority, it was only a matter of time before Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the leader of the Chaos Caucasians, called for McCarthy’s ouster. After McCarthy let the continuing resolution proceed without the drastic cuts that House Republicans demanded, which McCarthy knew the Democratic Senate would not agree to, his fate was sealed. A senior Republican told Reuters at that time that McCarthy had concluded he would face a challenge to his leadership no matter what he did.

McCarthy expected Democrats to save his speakership, but Democrats were frustrated by McCarthy’s unreliability as a House leader. “Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), head of the Progressive Caucus, told reporters.

“I don’t distinguish that sharply between Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz,” Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) said before the ouster vote.

Raskin, a manager in Trump’s second impeachment trial, noted that McCarthy, in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, was the first high-ranking leader to call for an independent commission to investigate, Paul Kane noted at the Washington Post.

But within weeks of the assault, McCarthy traveled to visit Trump to make amends, then worked against a Jan. 6 commission and the eventual House Jan. 6 committee.

“This speaker and Republican conference have done everything they can to bring us to this point of chaos, to have an unstable House of Representatives,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) told reporters.

Josh Barro wrote on Substack that the Democratic vote to remove McCarthy was sensible, and any successor likely would be motivated by the same things. “Any spending bills enacted under the next speaker will be enacted due to the same laws of political gravity that drove McCarthy’s own actions,” Barro wrote. “The reason he wanted a [continuing resolution] —as he stated repeatedly and loudly — was not some abstract principle about bipartisanship or continuity of government. It was that shutting down the government would have damaged Republicans politically while failing to achieve their policy objectives. Ultimately, any deal to keep the government running was going to require bipartisan support in the Senate and the president’s signature, and that fact severely limited his or any other speaker’s ability to maneuver.”

Still, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote that “plenty of Democrats would have voted to save McCarthy — but his own toxic partisanship prevented him from offering even small concessions in exchange for their support.” Hours before the ouster vote, McCarthy explained why he wouldn’t offer Democrats even a crumb for their votes to save his speakership: “I win by Republicans, and I lose by Republicans.” “And so he did,” Milbank noted.

On Oct. 3, eight hard-right Republicans voted with all 208 Democrats present to oust McCarthy, 216-210.

As we go to press, the House has not picked a new speaker. The leading candidates are Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who refused to comply with a subpoena to appear before the special House Jan. 6 Committee when he was in the minority and has led the efforts to obstruct investigations of Trump, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), a right-winger who once described himself as [former Ku Klux Klan leader] “David Duke without the baggage.” The best that can be said about Scalise is that Trump endorsed Jordan for speaker.

When Hamas mounted a surprise attack on Israel Oct. 7, it didn’t take Republicans long to blame Joe Biden. Trump posted, “This would have never happened with me,” and claimed “American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks,” blaming a $6 billion transfer of Iranian funds that White House officials insisted had not occurred.

Nevertheless, Republican National Chair Ronna McDaniel expressed the party line to Fox News: “I think this is a great opportunity for our candidates to contrast where Republicans have stood with Israel time and time again, and Joe Biden has been weak.”

Meanwhile, the GOP also stands for chaos in the military and diplomacy. as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has blocked more than 260 military appointments, including Chief of Naval Operations, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has blocked confirmation of dozens of ambassadorial appointments, including ambassadors for Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait. They have their own foreign policy. — JMC