This week in the House of Representatives: No, the sky is not falling...
ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων
This week, as Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was removed as a result of Matt Gaetz’ Motion to Vacate, we heard panic, lamentations, screeching, hyperbole, and foaming at the mouth from the Establishment GOP, the Uniparty NPCs, Neocons, “earnest” Centrists (aka latent leftists), and “adults in the room.” (Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth.)
These folks — and conservative commentators such as Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin — were livid that Matt Gaetz had the temerity to do something unapproved by the Serious People in Washington. The nation’s capital is practically in “chaos” (!) this week, as the House enjoys some days off (that they were going to take anyway). From Georgetown to Foggy Bottom, you can hear cries such as “Matt Gaetz is a terrorist and a captain of chaos! We won’t have a Speaker again until NEXT WEEK!”
But why is this collective freakout happening? Why are there now renewed calls to get rid of the one-vote Motion to Vacate mechanism from people such as Mitch McConnell?
Before addressing this question, remember that many of these same Serious People claimed that the sky would fall as a result of 20-or-so conservatives forcing several votes for Speaker back in January. Nevertheless, McCarthy was elected Speaker on the 15th ballot, and the House soon thereafter got back to approving obscene amounts of taxpayer money for Ukraine and pretending to do something about the weaponization of government agencies such as the FBI and DoJ. It turns out, the sky didn’t actually fall, but those conservatives did win some important concessions from the Business as Usual political class.
During McCarthy’s brief tenure as Speaker, he failed to substantively change the yearly budgeting fiasco, although he WAS forced to begin working through individual appropriations bills, against his will, as a consequence of those concessions he made to the 20-or-so aforementioned conservatives. He chose to take a lengthy monthlong recess during August, and as a result, the House did not finish the budget/appropriations bills in “regular order” procedures, so we were headed back to the “sky is falling, and we MUST do anything to avoid a brief government shutdown” kayfabe. The whole thing is a fake fight, just like pro wrestling. The truth is, both Democrats AND Republicans (for the most part) are fine with the obscene levels of spending and pushing through last-minute omnibus bills under the looming threat of a government shutdown.
Regardless of what you might think about Matt Gaetz and his alleged publicity stunt, McCarthy is out (at least partly) because he did not hold up his side of the January agreement. He failed to release the full J6 video footage that he had promised, and he allegedly made a side deal with Democrats to send more cash to Ukraine in a separate bill later this fall. Republican Nancy Mace, a vexing character who is not conservative, and several of the other reps probably have/had their own idiosyncratic beefs with McCarthy, but they’re moot at this point.
Now, I personally favored an approach closer to what Chip Roy or Thomas Massie had advocated — maybe this week was not the time to oust the Speaker — but nevertheless I do think that the threat of a Motion to Vacate is a good thing that should be used going forward to help keep Speakers of the House honest and accountable.
So, contrary to what McConnell and the Serious People want, we need our representatives to retain the “hair-trigger” Motion to Vacate. And very specific, restrictive deals SHOULD be made with any future Speaker — whether it’s Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan or even Chip Roy — who wishes to gain and maintain the support of his conference.
The House of Representatives should all sit down and read (re-read?) Article I of the Constitution. They control the purse-strings of the United States, after all. That is where their power lies, and they should use that power to the maximum extent allowed by the Constitution. So, for these spending/budget fights, which seem to happen perennially, the House should pass the stingiest and most restrictive appropriations bills possible, cutting the size of government budgets considerably. Then send the bill over to the Senate. If the Senate fails to pass these fiscally conservative appropriations bills, or if the President fails to sign these bills, then THEY would be the ones shutting down government, not the House of Representatives! (Hey “Adults in the Room,” see how this works?) This pressure point needs to be exploited. This is the path forward. House Republicans: craft your talking points accordingly, and gird your loins for crying out loud. Force the Democrats to shut down government if they refuse to sign austere spending cuts into law, and then never let them hear the end of it.