So now what happens in January when MAGA Mike’s short-term continuing resolution runs out and his shattered majority has to pass a budget? No one thinks MAGA Mike has the clout, or even the good will, to get it done. Shutdown Ahoy! The Trump campaign gets what it’s been demanding from Trump’s America Last congressional allies. Just to show MAGA Mike how pissed off they are, 19 angry kooks in his conference tanked a procedural vote to pass the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill— at which point MAGA Mike cancelled all votes scheduled for the rest of the week. So these bums are gone ’til after the Thanksgiving break.
The 19 who voted against the vote included all the usual suspects: Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Eli Crain (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Scott Perry (R-PA), Matt Rosedale (R-MT) and Chip Roy (R-TX) + Anthony D’Esposito, Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler and Andy Garbarino (perhaps pissed off because they had just heard that the Ethics Committee report won’t be recommending any action against Santos).
Before they adjourned, they voted on a series of crackpot amendments to the Labor Health and Human Services appropriations bill. Rich McCormick’s (R-GA) amendment to slash the salary of Xavier Becerra, Secretary of department, to $1 a year, failed 162-262. Other frivolous, time-wasting amendments— 3 from QAnon congresswoman Mary Miller (IL), 2 from Marjorie Traitor Greene, 2 from Clay Higgins (LA) and one each from Biggs, Crane and Perry— all failed.
Jake Sherman, Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan reported that the fun and games are just getting started that “When the initial Jan. 19 funding deadline comes along— just 21 legislative days away under the current House calendar— Johnson will likely be in largely the same position he’s in now. He’ll have a House Republican Conference that disagrees with his tactics and is unwilling to set aside its own short-term politics to seek a long-term funding deal. Just 57% of House Republicans voted for the CR Tuesday, hardly a mark of confidence in the new speaker.”
“House Republicans, they wrote, “will only have a narrow four-seat majority by that point. And Johnson will still have a conference that is seeking steep spending cuts while the Senate is proceeding with bipartisan funding bills. Johnson’s members have so far failed to pass some major spending bills, including the Labor-HHS, Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation-HUD packages. The Senate will still be far more united than the fractured House. Johnson couldn’t even pass a rule— a typically party-line procedural motion— for the CR this week. When it comes to actually winning a spending showdown with President Joe Biden and Democrats, Johnson and House Republicans are nowhere.”
By early next year, Johnson will have used up a significant amount of political capital to squeeze a clean CR through the House with just 127 of 221 GOP members, an embarrassing result for any Republican speaker. The House GOP Conference remains divided over aid to Ukraine and the reauthorization of FISA surveillance authority— not to mention the negotiated NDAA bill.
On top of that, Johnson declared Tuesday he won’t pass another short-term spending bill, adding even more pressure to an already tense situation.
In fact, it’s difficult to see any reason why January and February will be any better for House Republicans.
Johnson’s biggest challenge isn’t of his making, but he’s unable to avoid it either.
Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy cut a deal in May on the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which lifted the debt limit and set out spending parameters for next year. It included proposed FY2024 spending levels that are supported by Biden, the Senate and House Democrats.
House Republicans, though, are intent on slashing tens of billions of dollars from that total, plus throwing in a lot of culture war provisions on climate change, transgender policy and other issues into appropriations bills. This guarantees the bills aren’t going anywhere, but House GOP lawmakers— pushed by hardline conservatives— keep trying.
So what are the House Republican doing instead of real work? NBC reported yesterday that they want to go after Michael Cohen for testifying against Trump. “House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner,” reported Katherine Doyle, “asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Michael Cohen, after Donald Trump’s former fixer told a New York court that he had lied about his handling of the former president's business dealings in sworn testimony to Congress. ‘That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this specific issue is startling,’ Stefanik, of New York, and Turner, of Ohio, both Republicans, wrote in a letter to Garland obtained first by NBC News. ‘His willingness to make such a statement alone should necessitate an investigation.’”
“In a statement,” wrote Doyle, “Cohen rejected Stefanik and Turner’s perjury claim and accused the lawmakers of working on behalf of the former president to muddy the waters in his legal case. ‘Republican Congress members Stefanik and Turner continue to do Donald’s bidding in witness tampering and obstructing justice,’ Cohen said. ‘The two members fail to understand the distinction between explicit and implied; which is how the question was asked and accurately responded to. The topic was further clarified several questions thereafter; which is conveniently and intentionally being ignored.’ Cohen added, ‘I am not concerned at all with their baseless request.’ Further, Cohen warned, ‘This is the type of harassment everyone, especially critics, should expect if Donald becomes President again!’ The criminal referral against Cohen comes just days after Stefanik, a top Trump ally, filed a judicial ethics complaint against the judge presiding over the case.”
MAGA Mike’s Congress kind of reminds me of what the Parlement de la République française was going through in the decade that led up to its collapse (1940). Between Pierre Laval, Paul Reynaud and André Tardieu, French parliamentary politics were fragmented and the electorate was polarized. High unemployment rates and economic instability (the Great Depression) contributed to social discontent, influenced political decision-making and led to the rise of extremist movements on the far right. The political polarization was predominant in the legislature, with conflicts there reflective of deep divisions in society. A series of frequent turnovers of government was responsible for one ineffectual government after another and for continuous cycles of social unrest. There were 19 different governments, some lasting just a few weeks, between 1930 and 1940, with 9 men in and out of the premiership, Édouard Daladier 5 times and Camille Chautemps 4 times.
In March 1940— with the war going badly for France— Dadalier resigned and Reynaud became Prime Minister again. That same month Philippe Pétain was appointed Vice Premier. Reynaud resigned in June and Pétain took over and give in to the German invaders.