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Tom, I hope you'll post something about the Speaker of the House vote that's ongoing.

Correction. That was ongoing until early this morning.

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McCarthy was always going to be Speaker. It is my view that this revolt by the Freedom Caucus was long overdue . All they wanted was a return to normal procedure in the House. That as opposed to getting an 11th hour omnibus bill shoved up their keisters; done in a closed-door agreement by Congressional leadership; without debate; that undermine their proper role as the keepers of the countries "purse strings " .

I will see what I can find about the specifics of the deal they struck. I hope they got most of what they wanted.

Trump ill-advisedly jumped the gun by trying to pressure them into caving. There was no reason to panic or to get the impression that this was a Repub party in disarray and crisis. What was out or order was House rules that gave leadership disproportionate power.

Bottom line was that system does not serve the country well. How can you have a 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington" when leadership can suppress debate before it ever gets to the floor? Current Repub leader Yertle is not trusted. Previous Speaker Bonehead was not trusted. Clearly Madam Mimi exercised dictatorial control over the body. McCarthy comes from that ilk. He did not have their trust. Now he can earn it.

Thanks for that. I sometimes listen to Glenn Beck and yesterday he said virtually the same thing.

What was surprising to me was that commentators who should know better like Hannity and Levin were very critical of the revolt .

Glenn Greenwald commented ......

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"If you're following mainstream media coverage of this House Speaker election, then you have almost certainly been told that allowing three whole days of debate on this rather significant question threatens the very foundation of American society. Indeed, to hear establishment mavens all tell the story, the failure of Congress to smoothly and swiftly and immediately act and elect a Speaker, that's been preordained with little debate, as it usually is, has put the U.S. government on the verge of collapse, and no less than our national security has been gravely compromised. Have you ever noticed how often you hear that even temporary failure to snap into line and heed the orders of establishment decrees creates grave dangers for America? ..."

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Great comments.

MTG joined the establishment this week . Why ? Because Trump told her to do so.

Greene boasts of call with Trump during Speaker election | The Hill


Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene���� on Twitter: "Congratulations, Mr. Speaker! https://t.co/C53WqB8xwQ" / Twitter

Many of the Trump era tax cuts are set to expire soon. Unfortunately with a split Congress it is unlikely that they will be extended .The Senate being dominated by Dems and deep state Repubs makes it almost assured that taxes are going up at the worse of times .

What an age we live in where political deliberation is seen as chaos and with contempt . But passing a $1.7 trillion bill than no one has seen except for the elite Congressional leadership is seen as a great example of bipartisan democracy.

Very good observation. It's all being purposefully driven by a left-wing news media with an objective far removed from simply reporting the truth.

Based on the rules vote (passed 220-213) we get an idea of what the Repub food fight was about ,

Here are the key rule changes:

1. a vacate provision allows just one member of the House to make a motion to vote on changing the Speaker of the House . (called the Jefersonian motion )

Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 105th Congress-Rule XVIII.Reconsideration (govinfo.gov)

2. ending Madam Mimi's covid era proxy voting and zoom participation in the House . Members have to actually show up to do their job. Also ending covid emergency funding

3.This is a biggie .... ending the ‘Gephardt Rule,’ which automatically raised the debt ceiling when budgets were passed .
Also members will have 72 hours to actually read a bill before voting on it . It imposes a “cut go” rule—requiring any mandatory spending increases be offset with equal or greater mandatory spending cuts. A 3/5 supermajority vote will be required for tax increases. It also requires each committee to submit an oversight plan that lays out what action it intends to take on unauthorized or duplicative programs.

4.set up a committee on China competition

5. Reinstate the 'Holman Rule 'which gives lawmakers the ability to change salaries and staffing of the deep state bureaucracy.It ends Dems'’experiment with staffer unionization, which threatened to tie the chamber up with crazy demands.

6.ensure that bills coming to the floor are single issue No more omnibus porkulus BS

7. Term limits put to a vote (this would require a Constitutional amendment )

8.The 'Texas Border Plan' will be put to the vote

FINAL Texas Border Commitment (house.gov)

Other reported changes
1. a move to cap spending to 2022 levels which would effectively cut back $130 billion from the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill passed at the end of the last Congress.(the Senate will most likely block this )

2. a subcommittee will be created to investigate the weaponization for political purposes of the justice and intel agencies .This subcommittee will also investigate the Twitter files .

Reminds me of the Contract with America. It all sounds great, but the disturbing part is that there had to be so much arm-twisting to get it done. There should have been a repub stampede on all of this.

This one is huge. I'll believe it when I see it take place. "3.This is a biggie .... ending the ‘Gephardt Rule,’ which automatically raised the debt ceiling when budgets were passed .Also members will have 72 hours to actually read a bill before voting on it . It imposes a “cut go” rule—requiring any mandatory spending increases be offset with equal or greater mandatory spending cuts. A 3/5 supermajority vote will be required for tax increases. It also requires each committee to submit an oversight plan that lays out what action it intends to take on unauthorized or duplicative programs."

Repubs again proved they are not serious about the debt . Yesterday Speaker McCarthy did a snoopy dance . Why ? Because he caved and agreed to raise the debt ceiling .

Fox News ;now a full fledged member of the compliant press, is calling it the biggest win of his tenure.
House passes McCarthy's debt ceiling bill by two votes, four Republicans vote against | Fox News

To accomplish this feat he had to compromise with his own House members. He got a bunch on board by retaining ethanol CREDITS (not deductions .... just gimmeees ) .He barely got it passed because there are 4 Repubs who still think the national debt is out of control . Kudos to Andy Biggs of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Ken Buck of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida.They were the Repub no votes . The Dems votes no enmasse. .

This is just the opening salvo in the negotiations . There is zero chance that the Senate will pass the bill as written . They will add Shmucky's and Cluless' agenda . More concessions will be made . At best when all is said and done ;there will be very modest reductions in the rate of debt growth .

If you are keeping track ;this will be the 78th time since 1960 that the fictional debt ceiling has been raised. The Dems argue that it has to be raised or the country will default ....that it is money already spent . But if there is a debt ceiling ;how could that possibly be true ?

In 2 years we will repeat the kabuki dance.

Repubs have no courage. They are fast becoming a non-alternative to liberal dems since they are too close too them in governmental philosophy.

When the bill comes due ,the country will have no choice but to make draconian cuts . Then the century long + experiment in progressive rule will finally end .

The millions who sit in air conditioned government housing watching cable TV and eating taxpayer funded groceries will be decidedly unhappy. It could get dangerous in a hurry.

I expect our system to collapse.

As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be, that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.

(James Madison Federalist 55 )

I am borrowing this from a commenter at WSJ

This only shows how much we have allowed the government to grow and now we have a constituency for each and every dollar the government spends, and very few people making the case the government does too much and that much needs to be returned to the states and the people.