Speaker Kevin McCarthy kicked off this short week of House work in the usual way: sucking up to the far right that is pissed that federal charges against Hunter Biden aren’t eligible for the death penalty and did not include treason charges against his father, President Joe Biden, or something. They’re mad, and so is McCarthy, leading him to accuse U.S. Attorney David Weiss and FBI Director Chris Wray—both Trump appointees—of corruption.
If McCarthy thinks this will mollify the extremists and make them play nice, he’s going to be disappointed. The handful of nihilists who shut the House down earlier this month have made it absolutely clear that they are reserving the right to pull the rug out from under McCarthy and fellow Republicans any damn time they feel like it. Never mind that McCarthy and team gave into demands that McCarthy renege on the debt ceiling deal he made with Biden. This is the gang that just doesn’t know how to say yes.
“I haven’t been overly pleased or participatory … but I’ll just say that I don’t think we’re moving in the right direction as far as solving this massive growth in national debt,” former Freedom Caucus head Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona told The Hill. He’s ready to keep the House hobbled this week. “Oh, I think it’s always on the table,” he said. “I’m an ‘all tools’ guy.” Florida Man Rep. Matt Gaetz is with him, saying that blocking House action this week “is a distinct possibility.”
This is the gang actively rooting for a government shutdown through intransigence on the funding bills at issue. The Senate is moving ahead on appropriations bills for the 2024 fiscal year using the budget numbers agreed to by McCarthy and Biden. McCarthy, to appease the nihilists, committed the whole House to the spending limits the Freedom Caucus—which comprises only about one-quarter of the whole Republicans conference—demanded. “Shut ‘er down!” they yell in response. “I’m not worried about a shutdown,” Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina maniac, told The Hill. “The country’s going to be permanently shut down if we don’t get our spending under control. And I’m tired of hearing, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’”
This leads inevitably to a comparison in leadership style between McCarthy and his immediate predecessor, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and boy does Kev not come out of that one looking good. Where Pelosi made it her mission to protect her most vulnerable members, even when it meant pissing off the much larger Progressive Caucus, McCarthy is forcing his swing-district members into a hard-right lane. He’s making the majority of his conference hew to the extremists, likely sacrificing the very members who put him in the speaker’s chair.
The 18 freshmen serving in districts that voted for Biden in 2020 all supported McCarthy through the entire five-day, 15-vote saga it took for him to get there. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee barely let the ink dry on the 2022 midterm election before kicking off the campaign against those 18. McCarthy seems committed to making their reelection as unlikely as he can with unpopular votes on guns and abortion, and by committing the House to repeated attacks against the Biden administration for having the temerity to investigate and charge Trump for his part in harming national security and committing treason.
That’s fine with Democrats. “Vulnerable Republicans are going to have to answer for continuing to side with the extremists in their party,” Rep. Suzan DelBene told Politico. The Washington state Democrat is the DCCC chair. The votes McCarthy is forcing them to take will “cost them their seats” she said. “When McCarthy and his caucus continue to give in to their extreme right wing, they’re really showing voters that they’re out of touch with everyday families.”
That’s really going to hit home this fall when the problem children refuse to allow the government to be funded. If they keep that fight up into the new year, they will force automatic across-the-board spending cuts that will hurt everyone. That’s not going to be a good look for Republicans heading into an election.
RELATED STORIES:
GOP rebels shut the House down
Matt Gaetz probe reopens; Freedom Caucus tantrum halts House
McCarthy caves to rebels for temporary truce
Do McCarthy and the misfits have a political death wish?
