Kevin McCarthy Is Having a Bad Week. Good!

When I was in 8th grade and our class was able to shadow a department of our choice at a large company, I convinced my friend that we simply had to pick security because it meant we would have power over everyone. (I was in middle school, OK?) The day came and we shadowed the head of security and it was, well, it was not what I thought it was going to be. I bring this up now because Kevin McCarthy also craved power when he decided that he should be the current Speaker of the House, and it has not gone the way he expected it to, either. (I feel the need to point out that Kevin McCarthy is 58 years old, though.)

If you thought the debt ceiling would be the only threat of a government shutdown this year, you would be wrong because the Republicans control the House and they’re not very good at governing, are they!? The debt ceiling was a manufactured crisis, and the current threat of a shutdown is one we’ll get to relive all over again next year if the Republicans are still in control in the House. I am, of course, talking about the Federal Budget.

In normal years, when the Republicans aren’t holding the country hostage (so, you know when they have someone they like in the White House), this process goes off relatively smoothly: The Executive Branch releases a budget (the Biden administration released theirs in early March). Each chamber of Congress then goes back, subdivides the budget into the appropriate committee to work out its funding, and then works to pass budget resolutions, consolidate their two budgets into one via negotiations, pass it in both chambers, and then send it back to the President to sign. However, when the Republicans want to throw a hissy fit, they refuse to pass a Budget bill, and the government grinds to a halt overnight when the fiscal year runs out at midnight on October 1st.

So if you’ve been paying attention to the House this year, you already know where this is headed, but the Republicans are not united on basically anything other than the fact that they hate anyone who isn’t the GOP ideal. This means that time is running out and McCarthy has to cobble together a consensus on a budget that can pass both the Democrat-controlled Senate and be signed by Joe Biden, and must do it with essentially unanimous GOP support. Spoilers, he doesn’t have it. Per The New York Times:

Yet the internal resistance made it clear he is well short of the votes to pass it.

“The Republican House is failing the American people again and pursuing a path of gamesmanship and circus,” Representative Victoria Spartz, Republican of Indiana, said in a statement. “Neither Republicans nor Democrats have the backbone to challenge the corrupt swamp that is bankrupting our children and grandchildren. It is a shame that our weak speaker cannot even commit to having a commission to discuss our looming fiscal catastrophe.”

“This town is addicted to spending other people’s money,” Representative Eli Crane, Republican of Arizona, said on X, formerly Twitter. “Enough is enough.”

Yep, people whose whereabouts on January 6th you can’t be entirely certain of are holding this entire country hostage because they’re hateful children. This is so bad even McCarthy isn’t hopeful he can mediocre white guy his way out of this and fail upward, saying it’s hard to pass anything in Congress:

Well, gee, it probably is hard to pass anything when you sold your soul to the orc contingent in order to grab power for yourself.

The Republicans who don’t really want to see a shutdown are scrambling for a stopgap measure via a short-term extension of the budget so the GOP can get their s*** together. However, it was reported by Bloomberg that McCarthy scuttled that plan, so now who knows what’s going to happen?! Per Bloomberg:

Amid backlash from his right flank, McCarthy abruptly canceled plans to advance a short-term spending bill that would fund the government for 31 days while changing US immigration rules and cutting domestic agencies by 8%.

[…]

But some veteran House Republicans concede it may be time to start negotiating with Democrats to get a bill that can pass both the House and the Democratic-led Senate.

“There are 200 of us being dragged around by five of them,” Idaho Republican Mike Simpson said of the Republicans who voted against the defense bill.

So here’s where we stand: McCarthy is a terrible leader. The government is going to shut down at midnight on October 1st. There is a bonkers contingent of the GOP that is so out there that even fellow Republicans are now looking across the aisle at the Democrats as being a better option than dealing with them. This would be a challenging situation for any leader, but certainly for one for where it took 15 House floor votes to simply elect him to be Speaker of the House in the first place. So basically, business as usual.

Let’s not forget it only takes one vote to kick McCarthy out of the speaker’s office. Per Bloomberg:

Members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus say they’re discussing a backup plan to keep the government open using a bill stripped of ultra-conservatives demands. McCarthy, who controls the House floor, would either need to acquiesce to the plan or they would need to use of a lengthy petition process to force a vote on the bill.

If McCarthy were to permit a bipartisan approach, ultraconservatives could move to oust him.

Wow. Just wow. Our tax dollars at work!

Please remember this next year when it comes time to vote again. Elections have severe consequences and if you don’t vote, someone out there who hates everything you represent is, and unfortunately, their unhinged far-right candidates keep getting elected to the House of Representatives.

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)