Tag Archives: speakerofthehouse

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The Broadside | Your GOP “Representatives” Just Tried to Stab You in the Back

Speaker Johnson was all set to put forward a three-month Continuing Resolution that is crammed full of things Americans didn’t vote for, including the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which has been illegally censoring conservatives for years. He was literally ready to give them more money and another year of life so they’d be in place when Trump took office.

You know what else was in there? A pay raise for members of Congress. But not a cost-of-living adjustment, or some “merit” increase (LOL). No, they were going to give themselves a FORTY-PERCENT RAISE.

These criminal do-nothings work a part-time job and were ready to make themselves millionaires over their time of service by jumping their pay from the current $174,000/yr. to $243,000/yr.

For what!?!

All these cretins do is hold ineffective hearings (basically show trials without any convictions), make speeches that no one listens to, and write strongly worded letters.

Can anyone tell me what positive legislation they’ve crafted recently to give me more freedom and let me keep more of my money?

Anyone?

Bueller?

In a statement shared with the Washington Examiner, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) office defended the GEC provision.

“Speaker Johnson has killed multiple efforts to pass a 5-year reauthorization of the GEC during the past year, including as recently as the National Defense Authorization Act last week,” a spokesperson for Johnson said. “This bill ensures the incoming Trump Administration has the maximum ability and authority to determine how to handle the office, its authorities, and funding.”

According to a congressional source familiar with the matter, the GEC provision was a demand from Senate Democrats in exchange for Republicans getting a provision aiming to protect small businesses from certain fines approved by the Biden administration under a bill called the Corporate Transparency Act.

Fortunately, president-elect Trump, vice-president-elect Vance, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy all called them out and it looks like the bill is dead. That’s a good thing, because our elected representatives—and “we the people”—are beginning to realize that it won’t be business as usual anymore.

We’re tired of getting ripped off and told to shut up by swamp creatures.

This guy gets it:

Throw Speaker Johnson out—he’s a weak leader. We need a bulldog with a spine like Trump in that chair.

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Daily Broadside | Some Good News Out of the Fight for Speaker

A new week and a new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. As I wrote on Friday, I wasn’t too bothered by it and surmised that we would eventually wind up with McCarthy as speaker. I also thought it was a good thing that there was a scrappy group of conservatives who were gumming up the works, primarily because they were disrupting any sense of business as usual (or BAU as they call it in the business world).

Turns out there were even more reasons to be glad it happened. Did you see the list of concessions that McCarthy and his allies made to the Freedom Caucus, led by Matt Gaetz, in order to secure the gavel?

McCarthy’s deal with Freedom Caucus members will give them several seats on the crucial House Rules Committee and House Appropriations Committee — a “very important” concession, Gaetz said. He declined to say who he was pushing for those roles.

The low-profile Rules Committee determines how new bills can be introduced into the House. Its members — often some of the body’s most senior lawmakers — can effectively stall bills of their choosing, making them some of the most powerful in the chamber.

Meanwhile, the Appropriations Committee is tasked with passing the all-important appropriations bills that fund the government. Seats on that committee have long been a target of House fiscal hawks.

This is good. Many of the Freedom Caucus members don’t have the seniority that other House members have, but nowhere in the constitution is “seniority” a requirement to chair a committee — it’s just a tradition that has developed over the centuries and keeps otherwise capable members of Congress out of key positions.

A list of the concessions from CNN:

  • Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair
  • A McCarthy-aligned super-PAC (the Congressional Leadership Fund) agreed to not spend in open Republican primaries in safe seats
  • The House will hold votes on key conservative bills, including a balanced budget amendment, congressional term limits, and border security
  • Efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts
  • Move 12 appropriations bills individually, instead of passing separate bills to fund government operations
  • More Freedom Caucus representation on committees, including the influential House Rules Committee
  • Cap discretionary spending at fiscal year 2022 levels, which would amount to lower levels for defense and domestic programs
  • 72 hours to review bills before they come to floor
  • Give members the ability to offer more amendments on the House floor
  • Create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government
  • Restore the Holman rule, which can be used to reduce the salary of government officials

The first one, “Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair” is a big win for the members of the House. It used to take a group of five to do that. Now it only takes one. Good. Nobody should take it for granted that he keeps the gavel.

Apart from that, here’s what absolutely floors me about this list: these are concessions. Think about that when it comes to this one: “72 hours to review bills before they come to the floor.”

Isn’t that just common sense? Actually, a full week would be common sense, but that’s not how massive bills were being introduced for a vote. They were being voted on at the last minute with no advance time to consider or debate. A concession means that McCarthy and his allies wanted to keep it that way.

Or how about this one: “cap discretionary spending at 2022 levels.” Again, a concession implies that they wanted the option of increasing spending — on top of the monstrosities they passed last year.

And what’s with creating an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government as a concession? I would’ve thought that would go without saying. We want our representatives to get in there and knock down doors and kick over tables.

Bring Nancy Pelosi in front of a committee to answer questions about January 6 and two sham impeachments. Put Adam Schiffty-Shiff in front of a committee and make him answer for years of outright lying about Trump and Republicans. Make Tony “The Science” Fauci answer for his funding of the Wuhan Institute. Get Christopher Wray in front of Jim Jordan to answer for his FBI and Merrick Garland to answer for his DOJ and the fake domestic terrorism made up of concerned parents and patriotic Americans.

Unfortunately, the fact that these are “concessions” means that we’ve got a uniparty member as Speaker of the House and many uniparty members who outnumber the Freedom Caucus — my guess is that they will find ways to appease the Democrats in spite of their concessions. That’s how it always goes.

But we’ll see.