Do me a favor. Read this and tell me if it sounds like what I’ve been saying on this blog and on our pondcast all year long.
[House] Republicans cannot agree on basic policy priorities or even fund the government without a majority of Democratic votes…on Wednesday, conservatives blocked another GOP spending bill, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to send members home early on a losing note.
Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), who compared Republicans’ infighting to grade school bullying, said Johnson was doing his best with the party’s slim margins, but the party is still a mess.
“It’s the same clown car with a different driver,” Armstrong said. And unless the GOP could figure out a way to regain control of the floor, he warned: “We essentially don’t have the majority.”
My mantra has been that the U.S. House of Representatives has two basic responsibilities, which are to fund the government and pay our bills on time, and that the Republicans cannot do this on their own because they don’t have a functional majority. I predicted even before it started that Kevin McCarthy’s speakership would be short-lived because he’d either be shit-canned by his own caucus for paying our debts in June or shit-canned for funding the government with Democratic votes in September.
I also predicted that Mike Johnson would have the exact same problem. This became evident over the last two weeks. Johnson has not been able to pass appropriations bills. He tried to pass the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriation bill, but pulled it because he didn’t have the votes. He scheduled and then canceled a vote on the Treasury Department, White House, and federal judiciary appropriation. Then, on Wednesday, 19 House Republicans voted against the rule for the Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill.
To be clear, until recently, it was extraordinarily rare for a representative to vote against his or her own party’s rule. That kind of thing could get you kicked off a plum committee or otherwise disciplined. And these are spending bills drawn up by Republicans with no input from Democrats. The spending levels are below what Kevin McCarthy and the Biden administration agreed to during the debt ceiling negotiations, and they have no chance of passing muster with the Democrat-run Senate.
So, Johnson is failing to pass spending bills that aren’t even serious bills. At best, they’d serve as some kind of starting point for negotiations with the Senate, but he’d never be able to get his caucus to pass anything the Senate would agree to as a compromise, so he’s still stuck having to rely on Democratic votes.
That’s what he did with the continuing resolution that passed this week. It was virtually identical to the continuing resolution that McCarthy passed in September that cost him his speakership. It continues to fund the government at levels set when Nancy Pelosi was still Speaker, and it doesn’t have any right-wing amendments attached. The only difference is that it funds part of the government into late January and part of the government into early February–an unnecessary two-step process they’re calling a “laddered CR.”
Johnson gets nothing out of it but some time and, I guess, the ability to avoid a shutdown crisis on the eve of the December holiday season. He won’t get all that much time, however. He just sent the House home early for Thanksgiving because they’re at each other’s throats and not accomplishing anything, and then they’ll have most of December off.
When they come back, he’ll still have the problem that his plan doesn’t work. He can’t even pass unrealistic spending bills. In some cases, he can’t even pass the rule for these bills.
And does this sound familiar?
The conservative tactics could easily backfire, many members point out. Some Republicans predict if they can’t get a bill to the floor on their own, it will lead to GOP centrists leapfrogging their ultra-conservative colleagues and cutting deals with Democrats.
I thought the GOP centrists should have leapfrogged their colleagues and elected a bipartisan Speaker in January, and then again after McCarthy was sacked. But now they’re stuck with Johnson. It’s a bunch of drama, and it could have been avoided. At a certain point, the GOP centrists will go to the Democrats to end or prevent a government shutdown. They will probably have to use a discharge petition to do it. That’s when a majority of the House forces a vote over the objections of the Speaker and the Rules Committee. If that happens, then Johnson will no longer be the leader of the House on the most consequential thing, which is funding the government.
I always said this would happen, one way or that other, unless a bipartisan Speaker was selected. And I also said the Republicans would try everything else before doing the right and necessary thing. See you in late January, when this all comes to its inevitable conclusion.
Wouldn’t it be nice to get a few of these so-called moderate Republicans to switch parties?
More likely they will form a group alliance and vote with whomever shows them the most love, or is that corruption?
I’ve noticed when the democrats vote they often vote the same. I would have thought the republicans, being a slim majority would too. But, alas, it too often falls apart, as if they are more than one party scrunched together for convenience. No matter, once The Orange Master takes over it wont matter for however long he lives. It will be the party of all parties, hooray , no more democracy anyways. Trump won’t bother with Santos, so long as he kisses the ring.
Big difference: Democrats want government to work, Republicans think government is the problem.
This is fine.
If Democrats can hold the line and push the government shutdown to early 2024, even better for the Democrats’ chance to hold the Senate, take back the House, and hold the White House.
Let a Republican-created shutdown get blamed for a recession.
I always enjoy asking Republican voters how are the 2 parties voters different. I then take great pleasure by telling them that Democratic voters demand results, while Republican voters settle for excuses.