Yesterday was the first real day of the 118th Congress. And the Republicans were off to a terrible start. They managed to pass their shitty rules package last night. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) didn’t vote on it. He was the only member who didn’t, although one Republican, Tony Gonzalez, crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats against it. Crenshaw was pissed off because he had been a steadfast advocate for McCarthy but McCarthy cravenly made sure Tennessee fascist Mark Green would get the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, the chair Crenshaw thought he had locked up.
One member who was especially happy with the rules package was George Santos, primarily because it includes a provision gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics, which is investigating him. Bryan Metzger reported that after the package was passed Santos said “I think it's fantastic.”
After the drunken brawl on the House floor with Matt Gaetz Friday night Mike Roger’s and his wig seem to be stepping down from the powerful Republican Steering Committee, which helps select who gets which committee assignment, although I’m hearing Marjorie Traitor Greene is making many of those calls now. Rogers says it’s voluntary and that he has to put all the energy he has into his role as chair of the Armed Services Committee, where the Putin-wing of the GOP wants to defund the Ukrainian defense against Russia.
Connor O’Brien reported that “Among the concessions McCarthy made to secure the speakership was a vote on a budget framework that caps discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels and aims to balance the federal budget in a decade. The nascent pact does not make a specific commitment on defense spending. Many Republicans have sought to quash chatter of Pentagon cuts, noting they could instead look to make reductions from the non-military side of the ledger. But if the Pentagon is not spared, reverting to last year’s budget levels would amount to a roughly 10 percent cut, wiping out a $75 billion increase enacted last month.” Rogers, Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) and her defense subcommittee chair, Ken Calvert (R-CA) are all big hawks who think they can beat back the efforts by the fascists and Putinistas… ‘Everything has to be on the table,’ said GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, on Fox News Sunday. ‘Frankly, we’d better look at that money we send to Ukraine as well and say how can we best best spend the money to protect America,’ he added. ‘I think that’s what the people elected us to do. That’s what we’re going to do.’”
Fiscal hardliners may even find common ground with progressives who’ve long sought to restrain defense spending, though they’ve had little success because most Democrats and Republicans still back a larger Pentagon budget. And progressives would almost certainly reject cuts to domestic spending or holding the federal borrowing limit hostage.
“There are places I may actually agree with Republicans on defense cuts. I think it is absurd we are going to have almost a trillion dollar defense budget,” progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told Fox New Sunday. “And if they’re going to look at that and make certain cuts, then let’s have that conversation.”
Let’s see what else did they do on Day 1? Oh, yeah, they passed closet queen Adrian Smith’s HR 23 to claw back the money to fund the IRS, 221-210. Were it to be passed by the Senate— it won’t be— millionaires would not be audited by the IRS for the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that if the bill were ever signed into law— it won’t be— it would increase the deficit by $114 billion in the next 10 years. The White House responded with a statement from the Office of Management and Budget: “With their first economic legislation of the new Congress, House Republicans are making clear that their top economic priority is to allow the rich and multi-billion dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes, while making life harder for ordinary, middle-class families that pay the taxes they owe.” By the way, Smith lost his race for the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee to Jason Smith (R-MO), another closet case, and now the highest ranking gay person in the House Republican conference.
All the drama amounts to one thing— the Republican mania about cutting or privatizing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (as well as other programs that benefit the working class). Their first step will be to threaten a government shutdown unless the retirement age is increased. Some think Biden would be willing to eventually compromise on that... which would finally end his miserable career once and for all.