Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)is in some deep waters at the moment, namely due to Representative Matt Gaetz(R-FL) disapproving of McCarthy’s actions in preventing a government shutdown. After proposing conservative bills to the Senate, McCarthy failed to get enough Republican votes in order to pass. This led to the proposal of a more moderate stopgap bill in order to quickly gain the support of more Democrats and prevent a government shutdown. While this stopgap bill was passed, it caused a reaction from Matt Gaetz, a more radical Republican.
(Image Credit: NBC)
That is all great information, but what is a government shutdown? Every year Congress needs to pass 12 appropriations bills in order to fund these categories for the coming year. These bills need to be passed by October 1st, if some of these bills are passed and some are not, we go into a partial shutdown, but if all 12 are not passed, we enter a full shutdown. A shutdown causes federal workers in the given field(s) that were not approved to not be paid and potentially not work for a period of time. At the end of the shutdown, workers are paid and hopefully still have their jobs. Shutdowns are usually bad because they are disruptive, and don’t allow some non-essential but still important things to go through such as Ukraine funding.
Following McCarthy’s passing of the bill, Gaetz threatened to oust McCarthy for passing the bill with a motion to vacate; several far-right Republicans seem to agree with his sentiment. This swift action by McCarthy caused Gaetz to lose all of the little trust he had with McCarthy. Gaetz believes that McCarthy is unfit for the role of Speaker of the House lying to House conservatives (concerning collaboration with Democrats) and President Biden. Currently to the knowledge of the public Gaetz does not have a replacement in mind for McCarthy.
Although Gaetz firmly states “I am relentless” in the removal of McCarthy, he will need to convince nearly 200 members of the house, including the Democrats. Some on the left agree with Gaetz’s objective, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) “I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak speaker”(CNN). McCarthy will likely get support from more moderate democrats and republicans as he is seen as the lesser of the two evils. “Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said in a statement. ‘He(Gaetz) doesn’t want the center-left and center-right to work together because he has to be the center of attention’” (Washington Post).
While getting opposition from more radical Republicans and Democrats, I believe that McCarthy will stay in power as I don’t believe Gaetz has enough influence or is convincing enough to get the votes required to remove him. Watching this unfold is quite an experience as we see the polarization of our country happen in real-time. Imagine a news headline saying “A radical conservative is attempting to remove a relatively more moderate conservative because they were collaborating with the Democrats!”
-Anderson Wong
8 comments:
Well. Now that McCarthy has officially been voted out, I suppose it'd be interesting to think about where the Democrats, who all voted against McCarthy, were coming from. Many Democrats have cited his pro-Trump stance (voting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after rioters invaded the Capitol) and his opening of an impeachment inquiry on Biden without any evidence. Additionally, while McCarthy may have cooperated with Democrats to prevent the shutdown, he did publicly blame Democrats the morning after for the close call in the first place. Also, McCarthy's "lack of morals" and the frequency with which he went back on his word drew concerns as well.
Aside from the Democrat perspective, I also wanted to add that the reasoning behind the hard-right Republicans that pushed for this vote seems to not align with the spirit of government that the Founders envisioned (Washington specifically warned against partisanship) -- they have often cited how McCarthy worked with Democrats to pass bills (previously one that prevented the government from defaulting on debt, and now the shutdown one) as their reasoning. I think the fact that cooperating with the other party is an acceptable reason for removing the Speaker of the House is evidence of how polarized our government has become. The point of having such varied voices and perspectives is compromise, yet the Republicans who pushed to remove McCarthy are treating anyone outside of their party as the enemy (not saying this is just a Republican issue). That said, the fact that the Democrats were united enough in opinion to all vote against McCarthy does say something about his lackluster performance as speaker.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/03/us/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-news?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I do feel that it has more to do with the polarization of Congress (specifically extreme Republicans) than McCarthy's lacking performance. The vote was fairly close at 216 to 210, demonstrating that most House Republicans still supported McCarthy.
The main reason Democrats voted against McCarthy was that he tried too hard to placate the hard-right members of the Republican House Majority (ironically the same people that eventually voted him out). I don't see what Democrats really expect to see change because the vast majority of House Republicans still support McCarthy's general approach to the Speakership. Republicans still hold the majority in the House and a new candidate would still pander to the hard right members of the Republican majority to get a partisan bill through the House without Democrat support.
That said, maybe I am giving McCarthy a bit too much credit. A big part of the House's chaos was strife within the Republican party. Whatever his performance as speaker was, his leadership of the Republican majority was ineffectual with multiple factions within the party butting heads. That said, this butting of heads was usually because, again, the more extreme Republican members of the House had to have their way and could not compromise with more moderate Republicans.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/03/kevin-mccarthy-democrats-vote-speaker-house/
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/here-are-the-republicans-in-the-mix-to-replace-kevin-mccarthy/
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-10-03/kevin-mccarthy-ousted-as-house-speaker-analysis
This vote was fascinating, as in a vote that would traditionally result in a split seeing all Democratic and Left-leaning representatives vote one way and all Republican and Right-leaning senators lean the other way it was split interestingly. In this instance, however, eight, far-right Republican Representatives decided to vote McCarthy out, voting with most Democrats and Left-leaners, resulting in him being removed. This is extremely ironic as well because the Democrats voted for him to leave because they thought he aligned and worked too much with the Far-right Republicans, who were the Republicans to cast the needed votes to remove him. This could signify a split in the Republican party, something we may have been seeing since the January 6th insurrection, where 210 of their representatives wished to keep McCarthy, someone willing to work with the other party, in office, with 8 wishing to punish him for being to work with the party. How it plays out and who is elected next week will be interesting, as depending on who is put in we could see a Republican unwilling to work with Democrats, or one adamant on uniting against them. However, how it plays out in the Senate is not that important compared to how the country views it, we may not see an accurate indication of the country's willingness to work with one another until the 2024 presidential election, however, based upon this vote, it is only a radical few republicans, unwilling to have someone willing to work with the opposition.
Now that McCarthy has officially been voted out, it's interesting to think about the motives/strategies of McCarthy and Democrats and Republicans, for voting the way they did. After cooperating to prevent the government shutdown, McCarthy pretty much publicly blamed Democrats for the possibility in the first place, which had the effect of isolating both Democrats and far-right representatives. In hindsight, it appears that he would've had better chances by attempting to appeal to moderates on both sides. Additionally, what do moderate democrats who voted out McCarthy expect for the next speaker given the current Republican majority? It's surprising that they didn't settle for the lesser of two evils, trying to prevent a far-right speaker from taking power.
Taylor brings up a pretty interesting point on McCarthy’s seemingly unfavorable decision to publicly break the potential bridge he might’ve been able to make with the Democrats to keep his job. Even if he hadn’t, I think that the Democrats were unlikely to offer support despite McCarthy’s last minute move of desperation to put out a moderate stopgap bill because his approach to Speakership was still unfavorable. While McCarthy did not offer the Democrats any deals or concessions, he would’ve continued to be tied down by his previously made concession in the 15 rounds of voting to the far-right that allows any member to force a motion to vacate the Speaker. In addition to this delicate situation that diminished the worth of his Speaker position, McCarthy now had a record of dishonesty that many Democrats were wary of. According to TIME, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, had told reporters that she believed McCarthy is “likely the most unprincipled person to ever be Speaker of the House.” In another perspective, Nancy Pelosi, a well-established and respected Democrat, also expressed that Democrats should not side with McCarthy in a tweet: “The Speaker of the House is chosen by the Majority Party,” which in this case is the Republican Party, “At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition.” While the extreme right’s unwillingness to compromise directed the end of McCarthy’s Speakership, it was ultimately his prior concession that allowed for such an easy attack from his right flank. With this trend of struggle and the power held by the GOP members, the next speaker most likely will be more aligned with the far right.
https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1709255016358305973
https://time.com/6320202/house-democrats-refused-save-kevin-mccarthy/
https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555
Gabe brings up a good point about the irony that Far-Right Republicans voted McCarthy out along with radical Democrats. Now that McCarthy was voted out, it will be interesting to see who the Republicans will choose as a new speaker. I believe they will try to pick a candidate that is extremely far right. I have seen articles that stated that Trump, who may not be able to run for presidency, could theoretically become Speaker of the House. Although for him to become speaker it would require the cooperation of moderate Republicans some of whom dislike Trump.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4240942-how-the-house-battle-for-a-new-speaker-could-topple-trumps-bid-for-the-presidency/
Now that the house voted McCarthy out of speaker, the Republicans will likely look for a more extreme candidate for the job...can somebody explain why the Democrats voted out McCarthy when he is a relatively moderate Republican when working with Democrats on keeping the government open?
Surely whoever the GOP puts as speaker will be further to the right?
To respond to Chris’s question and comment, regardless of McCarthy’s cooperation with Democrats to keep the government open, the party simply is no longer satisfied with his work nor do they trust him due to his change in character over the decade. As Rachel stated, many go to cite his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results after the Capitol riot and his impeachment inquiry towards Biden. After practically starting the internal GOP rebellion, he turns to ask Democrats for help. However, when attempting to “work with Democrats” to prevent the shutdown, he soon after turns to blame them for the close call, sourcing mistrust. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a leading liberal, states that “Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy.” Over the last three years, the democratic support he had built, now views him as an unprincipled leader who is grasping for power. With this rapport gone, democratic commitment diminishes.
As to your comment on whether whoever the GOP puts as speaker would be further to the right, I am curious about perspectives when considering this too.
Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/03/kevin-mccarthy-democrats-vote-speaker-house/
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