Kevin McCarthy’s dream to lead U. S. House of Representatives has come true
2023.01.07 09:39
Kevin McCarthy’s dream to lead U. S. House of Representatives has come true
Budrigannews.com – After making significant concessions to right-wing extremists that raised concerns about the party’s ability to govern, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives early on Saturday.
Representative Matt Gaetz withheld his vote on the 14th ballot as midnight approached, humiliating the 57-year-old Californian and causing a brawl with fellow Republican Mike Rogers (NYSE:). needed to be physically removed.
The deepest level of dysfunction in Congress in over 160 years came to an end with McCarthy’s victory in the 15th vote. However, it vividly demonstrated the challenges he will face in leading a small and deeply divided majority.
In the end, he prevailed by a score of 216-212. Six members of his own party withdrew their votes, refusing to support McCarthy as leader or another candidate, allowing him to be elected with less than half of the House’s votes.
McCarthy symbolized the end of the Democrats’ hold on both chambers of Congress under President Joe Biden as he took the gavel for the first time.
“The foundation of our system is checks and balances. In his inaugural address, McCarthy stated, “It’s time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president’s policies.” His speech outlined a wide range of priorities, including reducing spending, reducing immigration, and fighting culture war battles.
McCarthy was only elected after he agreed to a hardliner’s demand that any legislator could call for his removal at any time. That will severely limit his ability to pass legislation on important issues like funding the government, addressing the nation’s debt ceiling, and other potential crises.
The Republicans’ weaker-than-anticipated performance in the midterm elections in November gave them a narrow majority of 222-212, which has given the right-wingers who opposed McCarthy’s leadership a lot of power.
These concessions, which include drastic reductions in spending and other restrictions on McCarthy’s authority, may point to additional turmoil in the months to come, particularly given that Congress will need to approve an additional increase in the United States’ $31.4 trillion borrowing authority.
In an effort to obtain substantial spending reductions, Republicans have, typically unsuccessfully, repeatedly shut down a significant portion of the government and brought the world’s largest borrower to the brink of default over the past ten years.
When negotiating with Biden, whose Democrats control the Senate, several hardliners have questioned McCarthy’s willingness to engage in brinkmanship of this kind. When Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell agreed to compromises, they have raged.
Hardliners Chip Roy of Texas and Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania also said that the concessions they got from McCarthy would make it easier to use such tactics or force another vote on McCarthy’s leadership if he doesn’t live up to their expectations, which would mean they would.
Perry stated, “You have historic changes in how we’re going to spend and allocate money.”
“When Democrats control the Senate and White House, we don’t want clean debt ceilings to just go through and keep paying the bill without some counteracting effort to control spending.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of those Democrats, said that the concessions McCarthy made to “the extremists” in his party might come back to haunt him. He also said that it was more likely that the Republican-controlled House would shut down the government or default, which would have “devastating consequences.”
Biden and McConnell made an appearance together in Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight investments in infrastructure, which was a stark contrast to the conflicts among House Republicans.
After two years had passed since a violent mob stormed Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s election loss, McCarthy won a belated victory one day later.
The number of failed votes for speakership ballots this week was the highest since 1859, during the turbulent years prior to the Civil War.
In 2015, McCarthy’s previous attempt to become speaker failed due to opposition from right-wing groups. Following disagreements with right-wing colleagues, the two previous Republican speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, quit their positions.
Biden’s legislative agenda can now be stopped, Republican priorities on the economy, energy, and immigration can be forced into votes, and McCarthy can move forward with investigations of Biden, his administration, and his family.
CONCESSIONS Nonetheless, because of the concessions he made, McCarthy will have significantly less authority than his predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi. He’ll have a hard time agreeing to deals with Democrats in a divided Washington because of this.
Hardliners will have a tremendous amount of leverage if one member is allowed to call for a vote to remove the speaker.
When inflation and population growth are taken into account, the agreement would set spending limits for the upcoming fiscal year at the same levels as last year.
In light of the fact that the United States is spending billions of dollars to assist Ukraine in defending itself against a Russian assault, that may come under fire from Republicans who are more centrist or who have advocated for increased funding for the military.
Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican, stated that he was not concerned that the House would be effectively run by hardliners.
He told reporters, “It’s aspirational.” Our voting cards are still with us.
More Putin enlisted the support of the Orthodox Church
