(Also read The Stupid Party strikes again from 2021)
For the first time in American history a Speaker of the House, second in line for the Presidency behind the VP and the second-most powerful political leader in the USA, has been removed by a House vote.
This came as a result of a tiny block of GOP House representatives who were volcanic in their displeasure with McCarthy using the Democrats to get an emergency spending measure passed that did three things:
- Avoided a government shutdown, at least for another 45 days, with this small-scale Continuing Resolution bill.
- Avoided passing an financial-year CR bill (basically a bill that just allows the government to keep spending for the next year as per the previous budget)
- Avoided passing a gigantic “Omnibus” bill that ignores the detailed analysis required for each of the twelve Appropriation Bills (twelve primary areas of Federal spending).
The last time Congress approved all 12 major spending bills in regular order was 1997.
I can see both sides of the argument here, especially in light of the fact that none of the other “solutions” has ever been more than a patch on America’s spending and debt as it rapidly spins out of control, which is an argument that ironically both sides of the debate can use:
- Pro McCarthy: it’s all Kabuki Theatre anyway so why sweat it? Just focus on other things like the Biden corruption investigations.
- Anti McCarthy: real solutions to the spending and debt Event Horizon is needed and the USA can’t go on like this.
There’s no question that the Democrats will be gleeful about this, as anybody would be when their opponent starts hurting himself. And of course when the Democrats do regain control of the House they won’t give a toss about the debt or spending. Much is made of the Democrats ability to be unified as only Lefty Collectives can be, but it’s easy when all you’re doing is passing bills for ever-increased spending that can buy votes, without giving a damn where the money comes from or the growing debt.
By contrast a good chunk of the GOP does care about this but find themselves stymied by the other side of the coin where cutting spending means losing votes, such is the dependence of much of the USA, including the private sector, on profligate spending. Hence the breakdown in GOP unity – which is only going to get worse as the deficits and debt grow larger. This is why the position of GOP Speaker has become increasingly unstable in the last twenty years, and why it will become more so in the next few.
As I have concluded for some time now, none of this is going to be fixed politically; only a massive financial crash that hurts both the public and private sectors will do it.
One thing I didn’t know before reading that article is that the Speaker does not have to come from the GOP majority or even the House representative body. It can be a complete outsider, and so:
Finally, if all else fails, it would be roundly entertaining if the House were to elect actor (and leftist) Russell Crowe as Speaker, on the condition that he wear his Gladiator costume at all times while on the House floor and end every vote by shouting “Are you not entertained?” We are, after all, probably at the point in our modern political scene that we may as well laugh because the other alternative is crying.
Also this, Frog meets scorpion as yet another example of how the GOP-Democrat dynamic works. To summarise the article:
- Moderate Republicans expected their fellow Democrats in the “Problem Solver Caucus” π to vote in favor of Kevin McCarthy – in order to fulfill their side of the contract, voting in favor of a “moderate” Republican to defeat the machinations of the “extremist” Republicans.
- But Instead, all of the “Problem Solver Caucus” π Democrats voted unanimously with the “extremist” Republicans and against the “moderate” McCarthy in order to boot him.
- In other words, the “moderate” Republicans on the “Problem Solver Caucus” π got used, humiliated and betrayed by their Democrat “partners”. Again.
ππππππππ
Morons.
No Minister 