The Neo-Fascist Wing Has Wrecked The Party Agenda
Aside from Hunter Biden’s laptop, do the House Republicans have any agenda— something they’re all united around and ready to take to the public? It sure doesn’t look like they do. That 30% sales tax plan isn’t going anywhere and privatizing Social Security and Medicare is a non-starter. They’re still hoping to cut Medicaid to ribbons and some of them think they can defund U.S. assistance to Ukraine, although Senate Republicans have told them to just get that out of their minds.
Yesterday, John Bresnahan and Andrew Desiderio reported that most Senate Republicans— and especially McConnell and Graham— aren’t interested in cuts to the Pentagon budget and have conveyed that to McCarthy. Susan Collins (R-ME), another hawk and the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told them that “Members are talking to me about everything from defense spending to NIH to child care— a wide variety” [of issues]. The idea that we would go back to FY 2022 [spending] is alarming to many people.” Deb Fischer, the No. 2 Republican on the Armed Services Committee, responded with an emphatic “no” when asked if the defense budget should be targeted as part of any debt-limit talks: “It’s important that members become educated, attend classified briefings, have a fuller understanding of the threats this country faces and what we need to do in order to meet the challenges of those threats… I anticipate that we will continue, here in the Senate anyway, to see that level of support. Because we do have an understanding of what this country needs to meet the threats.”
The NY Times reported that internal disputes among House Republicans are preventing them from moving forward on just about anything. “Hard-right lawmakers,” wrote Katie Edmondson and Annie Karni, “have effectively blocked legislation that would require law enforcement officials running background checks on firearm purchasers to report if a prospective buyer is in the United States illegally. And House Republicans’ marquee bill to crack down on immigration at the border with Mexico has been derailed by a faction within the party, including some more mainstream GOP members, who regard it as overly restrictive, fearing it would effectively end asylum in the United States. Six weeks into their majority, Republican leaders have found themselves paralyzed on some of the biggest issues they promised to address as they pressed to win control of the House last year, amid internal policy disputes that have made it difficult to unify their tiny yet ideologically diverse majority.”
They have had to pull back even on some measures that were supposed to be easy to pass, messaging bills once described as “ready-to-go legislation” intended to articulate House Republicans’ values and force politically vulnerable Democrats to take tough votes. It is an early indication of the unwieldy nature of the House Republican conference and a mark of how challenging it will be to reach consensus among themselves on far more consequential legislation that lies ahead, such as raising the debt ceiling and funding the government.
…House Republicans have have succeeded in recent weeks in winning party-line passage of a number of messaging bills that are essentially dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, including legislation to repeal vaccine mandates and declare the pandemic over; a bill that could subject some doctors who perform abortions to criminal penalties; and measures curbing President Biden’s ability to tap the nation’s petroleum reserves.
…Some Republicans from politically competitive districts argue that, in making an array of concessions to the hard right in his quest to become speaker, McCarthy has put forth an extreme-right legislative agenda that will alienate crucial voting groups, including independent voters.
“We’re doing everything we can right now to lose the majority in two years,” said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, a libertarian-leaning Republican from a competitive district. “It is independent, swing, purple districts that got us the majority— barely got us the majority. We nominated candidates that couldn’t win general elections; we floundered on the post-Roe era.”
…A well of opposition to the border bill, led by Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas, emerged from lawmakers from diffuse corners of the conference, including Floridians who worried about the implications for the Cuban diaspora, members of the New York delegation and members of the center-right Main Street Caucus, who argued that the three-page bill would essentially end asylum— a charge that the bill’s sponsor, Representative Chip Roy of Texas, has denied.
McCarthy, who had planned to put the measure to a vote last month, was forced to delay action after concluding that, with all Democrats opposed, he would not be able to muster a Republican majority to push it through.
“It’sgoing back to committee,” Gonzales said tartly, “where it belongs.”
It was the first instance of mainstream rank-and-file Republicans, who steadfastly backed McCarthy during his protracted fight for speaker even as he agreed to major concessions to the right, flexing their muscles in the new majority.
“We have nearly 80 people in Main Street,” said Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska. “In a four-vote majority, we should have some muscles on that.”
…Some of the dissent has sprung from lingering resentment from McCarthy’s struggle to become speaker and the confidential deal he struck with the hard right to win. Some center-right Republicans believed McCarthy had secretly promised right-wing members that he would fast-track votes both on the border bill and on a separate tax measure that would abolish the Internal Revenue Service and replace the federal income tax with a 30 percent sales tax.
Yesterday, speaking at a union hall in Lanham, Maryland, Biden asserted that “Republican legislative plans would add substantially to the national debt and benefit the wealthy, large corporations and drug companies. The speech comes amid a standoff over raising the debt ceiling with House Republicans, who are insisting upon spending cuts in exchange for their support— a stand they did not take under President Donald Trump when the limit was raised three times without conditions.”
An inflammatory e-mail nailing a Republican who “praised Ryan’s Medicare proposal at the time and said lawmakers should examine Medicare and Social Security spending to address federal debt” quoting the Republican telling Fox viewers that “What they need to be doing is looking at entitlements. Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s actually go to the heart of what is causing government to grow, and tackle that.” But that e-mail wasn’t sent out by the DCCC, DNC or DSCC. It was part of Trump’s attack on Nikki Haley after she announced she’s running for president (or vice-president), The Real Nikki Haley. Republicans seeking to go after Social Security and Medicare as part of any attempt to balance the budget, aren’t going to be attacked by Democrats, they’re also apparently going to be attacked by Trump. And notice that he included Medicaid in his broadside against Haley. Cutting Medicaid is what Republicans are starting to conclude they should all unite around since Social Security and Medicare are off the table.