Uncle J
Member
Is anyone following the complete debacle that is the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and their attempts to carry out even the most basic of functions (e.g., defense spending bill)? And not only is it an absolute joke, it has nothing to do with Democrats vs. Republicans....it's 100% Republican vs Republican. A sample of articles from today....
McCarthy Fails. Again.
"House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered yet another loss on Thursday, one that no speaker should ever experience. Five of his Republican colleagues rebelled against sending the defense appropriations bill to the floor, and blocked it. Again. These things aren’t supposed to happen in the House. Speakers don’t put a bill on the floor when they don’t have the votes locked up. A controlling bloc of the majority doesn’t vote against leadership.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi is right: As speaker, she didn’t lose any rule votes—the procedural vote that kicks off consideration of a bill—because she didn’t put them on the floor without knowing she had the votes locked up. In fact, until McCarthy, it had been more than two decades since a rule vote failed on the floor. McCarthy has managed to do it three times in four months, and twice just this week."
Kevin's Conundrum
"Last week the simmering feud between Matt Gaetz, R-Fl., and McCarthy finally boiled over when Gaetz openly threatened to take the necessary steps to remove the speaker if he didn’t agree to all of his demands. McCarthy finally lost his temper and responded, “If you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the [effin] motion.” Shortly afterwards, McCarthy had to forego plans to have the House vote on a defense spending bill because he couldn’t get the votes and Gaetz fired back,“how about just move the [effin] spending bills?” he told CNN.
So that went well. And so far this week, it’s going even better. Now the Freedom Caucus itself is at each other’s throats. On Tuesday, five hardcore MAGA Republicans stopped that proposed defense spending bill from even coming up for debate, once again paralyzing the the House making it impossible to move forward. This maneuver is very unusual and appears to be a tactic designed solely to embarrass Kevin McCarthy.
When asked about it McCarthy was clearly rattled:
Things went downhill from there. Over the weekend, the Freedom Caucus and the leadership negotiated a stop-gap Continuing Resolution to take them through October 31st and avoid an imminent shutdown. It was a ridiculous agreement that no Democrats would sign on to but they thought they could bring together the GOP caucus to at least buy some more time. But no. When it came time to vote on Tuesday, the whole thing unraveled and 16 Republicans balked. McCarthy had to withdraw that one from the floor as well.
The recriminations were swift and nasty. The Daily Beast reported:
And just this afternoon...
House Speaker McCarthy Gives Up, Sends Lawmakers Packing
"After threatening to keep Republicans in town until a government spending deal was struck, a dejected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called it quits until further notice.
Hardline conservatives who had backed McCarthy into a corner expressed outrage that he had given up when word spread that he was sending lawmakers home. They blasted him on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"MEMBERS SHOULD NOT BE GOING HOME THIS WEEKEND!" tweeted Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. "The government is on the verge of shutting down. I urge @SpeakerMcCarthy to keep everyone in D.C. so we can do our jobs for the American people."
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, blared on the social media site: "We should not leave town - our border is on fire & we have to get our job done.""
Like I keep saying, today's Republicans are mostly about performance, not governance. They're quite adept at shouting talking points, holding hearings, and other performance-type activities, but when it comes to the mundane task of actually running the government they are completely inept.
McCarthy Fails. Again.
"House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered yet another loss on Thursday, one that no speaker should ever experience. Five of his Republican colleagues rebelled against sending the defense appropriations bill to the floor, and blocked it. Again. These things aren’t supposed to happen in the House. Speakers don’t put a bill on the floor when they don’t have the votes locked up. A controlling bloc of the majority doesn’t vote against leadership.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi is right: As speaker, she didn’t lose any rule votes—the procedural vote that kicks off consideration of a bill—because she didn’t put them on the floor without knowing she had the votes locked up. In fact, until McCarthy, it had been more than two decades since a rule vote failed on the floor. McCarthy has managed to do it three times in four months, and twice just this week."
Kevin's Conundrum
"Last week the simmering feud between Matt Gaetz, R-Fl., and McCarthy finally boiled over when Gaetz openly threatened to take the necessary steps to remove the speaker if he didn’t agree to all of his demands. McCarthy finally lost his temper and responded, “If you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the [effin] motion.” Shortly afterwards, McCarthy had to forego plans to have the House vote on a defense spending bill because he couldn’t get the votes and Gaetz fired back,“how about just move the [effin] spending bills?” he told CNN.
So that went well. And so far this week, it’s going even better. Now the Freedom Caucus itself is at each other’s throats. On Tuesday, five hardcore MAGA Republicans stopped that proposed defense spending bill from even coming up for debate, once again paralyzing the the House making it impossible to move forward. This maneuver is very unusual and appears to be a tactic designed solely to embarrass Kevin McCarthy.
When asked about it McCarthy was clearly rattled:
Mike Garcia, R-Ca., was also fit to be tied and called out his fellow Republicans. He said, “out of fear, they decided to vote against the rule to even allow this to come to the floor for debate, This city, Washington DC, is riddled with Chinese sympathizers.” You read that right. He said those five Republicans were Chinese sympathizers.
Things went downhill from there. Over the weekend, the Freedom Caucus and the leadership negotiated a stop-gap Continuing Resolution to take them through October 31st and avoid an imminent shutdown. It was a ridiculous agreement that no Democrats would sign on to but they thought they could bring together the GOP caucus to at least buy some more time. But no. When it came time to vote on Tuesday, the whole thing unraveled and 16 Republicans balked. McCarthy had to withdraw that one from the floor as well.
The recriminations were swift and nasty. The Daily Beast reported:
More or less sane Congressman Mike Lawlor, R-N.Y., told CNN, “this is not conservative Republicanism, this is stupidity, these people can’t define a win, they don’t know how to take yes for an answer. It’s a clown show.” That is 100% correct.
And just this afternoon...
House Speaker McCarthy Gives Up, Sends Lawmakers Packing
"After threatening to keep Republicans in town until a government spending deal was struck, a dejected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called it quits until further notice.
Hardline conservatives who had backed McCarthy into a corner expressed outrage that he had given up when word spread that he was sending lawmakers home. They blasted him on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"MEMBERS SHOULD NOT BE GOING HOME THIS WEEKEND!" tweeted Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. "The government is on the verge of shutting down. I urge @SpeakerMcCarthy to keep everyone in D.C. so we can do our jobs for the American people."
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, blared on the social media site: "We should not leave town - our border is on fire & we have to get our job done.""
Like I keep saying, today's Republicans are mostly about performance, not governance. They're quite adept at shouting talking points, holding hearings, and other performance-type activities, but when it comes to the mundane task of actually running the government they are completely inept.
