Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

When we last visited the Clown Show, in January of 2023, we were talking about the farce the Republicans put on trying to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives. Kevin McCarthy of California finally won the post on a historic fifteenth ballot. But power really lay with roughly fifteen right-win radical Republicans, who battled McCarthy relentlessly.

I took a break from this subject as the GOP stumbled though one of the least productive House sessions on record. Now it’s time to catch up.

In September McCarthy partnered with Democrats to pass a bipartisan continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. That led the radical fifteen to throw McCarthy out of office on a motion filed by Matt Gaetz of Florida. McCarthy said the speaker’s job was his life-long dream. He became the first speaker to be removed during a session and his tenure the third shortest in history. Good sport that he always was, McCarthy quit Congress at the end of 2023. He manhandled one of his colleagues on the House floor on his way out.

Ohio’s Jim Jordan, Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota all took a shot at winning the speakership but failed to win a vote of the Republican caucus. Then the Republicans settled on a backbencher, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Republican Senator Susan Collins woke up long enough to tell CNN she was going to “Google” Johnson, one of the least known members of the House.

Johnson quickly made a deal with the Democrats for another bipartisan continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown and the House adjourned for the holiday season. The radical Republicans apparently placed a higher priority on their vacation than they did on another vote to unseat a speaker.

So Happy New Year! We have learned that Congressional leaders reached an agreement on the overall price for the next bunch of government spending bills. Without an agreement, a partial shutdown deadline is January 19th. The deal is expected to include less spending in the fiscal year 2024 than was in the budget deal, without cuts to defense spending. However, a renewed push for coronavirus relief and unresolved budget issues are complicating the negotiations. The radical House Freedom Caucus is already complaining about the size, $1.4 trillion, of the proposal.

The budget compromise only buys Congress time. By summer, lawmakers will need to approve spending caps on defense and non-defense accounts. They also face an August deadline to raise the debt ceiling or risk destabilizing credit markets.

Instead of taking up any of those items the Republicans continue to investigate Hunter Biden and are proceeding to gather evidence for the impeachment of President Joe Biden. So far it appears the only thing President Biden did wrong, in their view, was to have a son named Hunter.

All these time-wasting efforts are Johnson’s way of appeasing the GOP right and avoiding McCarthy’s fate and another Speaker less journey. The Republicans have now proven without a doubt that while the have the votes, by the slimmest majority, but they have no agenda and no plan to govern. Their entire platform is to simply object to everything the Democrats are proposing. Another member of the radical right, Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, is already warning Johnson that his “honeymoon” is over.

Welcome to Act II of the Republican Clown Show.

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