Although... Kevin Hern Thinks He's Right For The Job
McCarthy will meet with Biden on Wednesday to discuss the debt ceiling. Republicans say they will refuse to allow the Treasury to pay back the debts accrued while Trump was in the White House unless there is a clear path to a balanced budget. However after some of the fringier members like Rick Allen (R-GA)— we’ll get to Oklahoma extremist Kevin Hern in a moment— floated cutting Social Security and Medicare, the size of the outrage from independent voters and even the Republican base was so deafening that McCarthy was forced to go on CBS News’ Face The Nation yesterday to reassure the public— as much as someone who hisses like a serpent can reassure anyone of anything— that Social Security and Medicare cuts are “off the table.” (Raising the retirement age is conservatives’ preferred way to cut benefits and that certainly isn’t off any tables.)
But the heart of the problem is that McCarthy and the rest of the GOP refuse to solve the actual problem by raising taxes on the rich. That, they say, is something truly off the table, even though when the country was booming and the middle class was thriving, the wealthiest 1% was paying as much as 91% on income over $200,000. Today, at least theoretically, the top 1% pays less than half that. The reality is much grimmer with high-priced lawyers, accountants and politicians keeping the actual rate closer to 20%. And over a thousand households with over a million in annual income— not accrued wealth, just the annual income— paid zero in income taxes (people like Trump). 2019 was the first time in history when billionaires paid a lower tax rate than the working class.
But even discussing that is OFF THE TABLE for slimy, deceitful Kevin McCarthy and his party. They are exclusively about cuts in services and programs to the working and middle class. Which brings to Kevin Hern, chair of the far right Republican Study Committee. A McDonald’s franchisee, Hern was famous for starving his workers while. He accumulated a net worth of approximately $90 million, which makes him the 4th wealthiest member of the House. A member of the Ways and Means Committee (and the Social Security and the Select Revenue subcommittees), there is no member of the House more opposed to the rich paying their fair share of taxes than Hern— and few members who have been as actively trading stocks while in Congress than Hern— AND few who scammed the COVID paycheck protection program as aggressively.
Hern is responsible— and proudly so— for the Blueprint to Save America, which calls explicitly for every reactionary scheme you’ve ever heard of, from blanket deregulation to increasing the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and then indexing it to life expectancy.
Yesterday, Ben Guggenheim reported that McCarthy “has backed his fellow Republicans into a corner with one of the promises he made to his far-right flank to land his job: opening the door to considering fringe legislation that would replace the income tax with a federal sales tax and abolish the IRS. Most GOP members appear determined to distance themselves as much as possible from the idea, and McCarthy himself said this week he doesn’t support the legislation. But Democrats aren’t going to let the issue die quietly. They’ve been more than happy to use it as a cudgel to portray Republicans as dangerous radicals… Forcing the discussion of the unpopular tax puts the GOP in a political bind that seems doomed to repeat itself for the House’s slim majority. McCarthy must walk a tightrope between appeasing the renegade factions of his caucus and disassociating the party from policy proposals that could hurt Republicans at the ballot box… [M]any Republican members of Ways and Means are so far treating the legislation like it’s radioactive.” McCarthy’s nutty ally running House Ways and Means, Missouri mentally unbalanced closet case Jason Smith, insists he’s committed to having a committee hearing on the legislation in which members can have an open and transparent debate.” And that’s just fine for Democratic ad makers.
Although, as you can see for yourself in the video above, McCarthy is mostly incoherent. But when he wants to he certainly knows how to dodge a question and mislead people listening to him. When Margaret Brennan made one of several tries to find out what he’s demanding in return for not sending the country into default, he refused to answer over and over:
Brennan: I want to dig into what you are willing to put on the table because Republicans campaigned on fiscal responsibility. You promised you won't spend more next year than you did last year. Are you willing to consider any reductions to Social Security and Medicare?
McCarthy: No. Let's take those off the table…
Brennan: Completely?
McCarthy: Yeah. I mean, if you read our commitment to America, all we talk about is strengthening Medicare and Social Security. So, and I know the president says he doesn't want to look at it, but we've got to make sure we strengthen those.
[In Republicans “strengthen” always means raising the age of eligibility.]
Brennan: What do you mean by strengthen? You mean lift the retirement age, for example?
McCarthy: No, no, no. What I'm talking about Social Security, Medicare, you keep that to the side. What I want to look at is they've increased spending by 30%, $400 billion in four years. When you look at what they have done, adding $10 trillion of debt for the next ten years in the short time period, if you just look a month ago, they went through and they never even passed a bill through appropriations in the Senate. While Mr. Schumer has been leader, he's never passed a budget, he's never passed the appropriation bill. He simply waits to the- to the end of the year and allowed two senators who are no longer here to write a $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.
Later in the interview, Brennan asked McCarthy-- clearly in over his head and totally unprepared to be interviewed outside of the Fox bubble-- about some of the crackpots he assigned to key committees. Watch how he avoids answering her questions:
Brennan: According to CBS records, 70% of the House GOP members denied the results of the 2020 election. You've put many of them on very key committees, intelligence, homeland security, oversight. Why are you elevating people who are denying reality like that?
McCarthy: Well, if you look to the Democrats, their ranking member, Raskin, had the same thing, denied Trump or Bush was in there. Bennie Thompson, who was…
Brennan: Did you see those numbers we just put up there? 70%.
McCarthy: Did you also be fair and equal and where you looked at— Raskin did the same thing. Bennie Thompson, who's a ranking member and was the chair. These individuals were chair in the Democratic Party.
Brennan: I'm asking you as leader, Kevin McCarthy's house, why you made these choices? These were your choices.
McCarthy: Yeah they're my choices, but they're the conference choices. But I'm also asking you, when you look to see just Republicans, Democrats have done the same thing. So maybe it's not denying. Maybe it's the only opportunity they have to have a question about what went on during the election. So if you want to hold Republicans to that equation, why don't you also hold Democrats? Why don't you hold Jamie Raskin? Why don't you hold Bennie Thompson, when Democrats had appointed them to be chair? I never once heard you ask Nancy Pelosi or any Democrat that question when they were in power in the majority, when they questioned…
Brennan (after he steadfastly refuses to answer): Let me ask you about some specifics then. Marjorie Taylor Greene, you put her on a new subcommittee to investigate the origins of COVID.
McCarthy: Yes.
Brennan: She compared mask requirements to the type of abuse Jews were subjected to during the Holocaust. She called for Fauci to be arrested and imprisoned, and she spread conspiracy theories. How is anyone supposed to take that work seriously and find that we're credible?
McCarthy: Very well. You look at all of it. So you have all the questions out there. I think with the America…
Brennan: You think these are legitimate questions?
McCarthy: I think what the American public wants to see is an open dialogue in the process. This is a select committee where people can have all the questions they want and you'll see the outcome…
Brennan (growing exasperated by his refusal to answer her questions): Approval level, according to Gallup, of Congress, is at 22%. Approval level of journalists is also not very high, I'll give you that. But doesn't it further wear down credibility when you put someone who is under state, local, federal and international investigation as a representative of your party on committees…
McCarthy (flat out lying, doing his Joe McCarthy impersonation): Are you talking about Swalwell?
Brennan: I'm talking about George Santos, representative from New York.
McCarthy: We should have that discussion. So let's have that discussion. You want to bring up Santos, and let's talk about the institution itself, because I agree wholeheartedly that Congress is broken. And I think you— I think your listeners or viewers should understand what proxy voting was because it never took place because it never took place in Congress before.
Brennan: I'm asking you about George Santos.
McCarthy: I know you asked me a question. Let me ask you…
Brennan: Because you could put it to a vote to try to oust him…
McCarthy: You asked me a question. I'd appreciate if you let me answer. So let's go through this because it's not one simple answer. Congress is broken based upon what has transpired in the last Congress. The American public wasn't able to come in to see us. People voted by proxy, meaning you didn't have to show up for work, Bills didn't go— have to go through committee. So what I'm trying to do is open the people's house back for the people so their voices there— so people are held accountable. So now, as I just had in the last week, for the first time in seven years, every member got to vote.
Brennan: If you got a third of your caucus to vote to oust him, you could do so. You don't think you could get your Republicans to do that?
McCarthy: I wasn't finished answering the question. So, if every single new person brought into Congress was elected by their constituents, what their constituents have done has lend their voice to the American public. So those members can all serve on committee. Now, what I'm trying to do is change some of these committees as well, like the Intel Committee is different than any other committee…
Brennan: So you're just not going to answer the question I asked?
McCarthy: Well, no, no. You don't get a question whether I answer it. You asked a question, I'm trying to get you through that.
Brennan: I don't think you've said the name George Santos like once. You’re talking about proxy voting.
McCarthy (trying to run out the clock): No, no, no. But, you know, you started the question with Congress was broken, and I agreed with you. But I was answering the question of how Congress is broken and how we're changing it. So if I can finish the question that you asked me how Congress is broken, I equated every single member. They would just got elected by their- by their constituents. They have a right to serve. So that means that Santos can serve on a committee the same way Swalwell, who had a relationship with a Chinese spy, but they will not serve on Intel because I think…