[tomder55]

The Repubs ;22 Days after Matt Gaetz and his gang of 8 idiots ousted Speaker McCarthy have FINALLY selected a Speaker of the House. He is 3 term Louisiana Rep Mike Johnson. He is a loyal Trumpian MAGA "conservative" . He is most noted for being in the defense team of both Trump impeachments .

He also has a solid conservative record on social issues . He has voted against Ukraine spending . All good.

So given that ;all is kumbaya and the Repubs can get back to being the majority passing the majority agenda ?

Not so fast .

There is a lot of bitterness in the ranks over the events of the last 22 days

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) slammed Gaetz for picking the fight.

The blood is on [Gaetz's] hands for 22 wasted days for him to join with 100% of the Democrat Party to remove the speaker of the House. He's all about himself,"

Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) who was the care taker Speaker during the fight said the McCarthy ouster was "perhaps the dumbest set of politics for decision-making a majority party in this institution could make."

Some are saying they will have to become a minority party in the House to fix the divisions .

Johnson for his part met with Clueless Joe and Yertle McConnell to try to forge something of a working relationship.

The Gaetz wing did it's putsh and has it's Speaker . They will find that governing is the hard part .

[jlisenbe]

His acceptance speech is very good.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/iKECrU4jXGn6X2kL/

[tomder55]

Already there could be issues between Johnson and Yertle. Johnson wants to fund Israel in a stand alone bill. Yertle just loves those omnibus spending bills where pork can be hid in thousands of pages of legislation that no one reads.

House Conservatives I believe would rather shut the government down than pass a continuing resolution comprehensive bill. That was their message in ousting McCarthy.

[jlisenbe]

House Conservatives I believe would rather shut the government down than pass a continuing resolution comprehensive bill. That was their message in ousting McCarthy.

I could be all for it, but we all know how it would end. The MSM would characterize it as evil conservatives, because of their obstinate positions, are willfully shutting down the government and thus injuring all of the poor folks.

[tomder55]

Well what do you know .... The House passed a spending bill How did Speaker Johnson pull that off ? The same way Speaker McCarthy did.....no cuts . He got enough Dem support to counter the conservatives who opposed it . Same as McCarthy. It cost McCarthy his job . it won't cost Johnson his.

The big question is why ?

[tomder55]

Pop quiz: What’s the difference between the bipartisan stopgap funding bill that passed the House Tuesday under new Speaker Mike Johnson, and the September equivalent passed under former leader Kevin McCarthy? Answer: Nothing but the self-defeating Republican drama.

Meet the New Speaker, Same as the Old Speaker - WSJ

[jlisenbe]

The national public will to do the sacrificing necessary to have a balanced budget is simply not there. From where I sit, the vast majority of folks don't even want to talk or read about it. It's like the abortion debate. Far too few people have any real interest in the truth.

[tomder55]

The gang of idiots have driven Mike McCarthy out of Congress. He is resigning at years end .

The Repubs had a 3 seat majority before ousting George Santos. McCarthy leaving means they will have a 1 seat majority going into 2024. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) is also expected to resign in January . But Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) is also expected to leave.

A one vote majority is not a majority .And that is especially true considering how many Repubs cross the aisle in their votes.

The configuration of the House could be significantly changed in 2025 as a slew of Reps from both sides are not seeking reelection,

[tomder55]

Repub voters have to suck it up and begin embracing early voting . I admit that I am not a huge fan of it ;but how often do they have to get burned by it before they realize that the changes they want to the process will never happen until they WIN ??????

The latest example of this folly happened yesterday in the New York Special election that was held to replace George Santos .(see above ...he was ousted from Congress by the Repubs).

The Dems did their early voting . The Repubs mostly did not . So what happened yesterday in NY ? There was a snow storm ! That suppressed turn out .

The result is that the Dem candidate Tom Suozzi won the vote further diluting the Repub razor thin majority . Suozzi had held the seat before Santos but had given it up to run for Guv. Now he returns to Congress . He ran a trojan horse campaign seizing many of the issues the Repubs hold . (tough on crime ...... border security etc) The district is on Long Island in the NYC burbs . His win could bolster the Dems prospects in city collar counties which would help them greatly in key states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.

How important was that seat to the Repubs ? Let's put it this way. Yesterday the House Repubs voted in favor of impeaching DHS Sec Mayorkas . That vote was a one vote majority with a handful of Repubs siding with the Dems.

The Repub candidate had a compelling life story that should've been an attractive American story . Mazi Pilip was born in Ethiopia ;an Orthodox Jew. She was airlifted out of the country in 1991 when she was 12. She later served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) . She married a Ukraine-American doctor and moved to the US and became a citizen. Although Suozzi expressed conservative sounding talking points throughout the campaign. It is clear who the real conservative was on issues like immigration and crime .She took tough stands and tried to link him to both Dem failed policies in NY.

We will never know what would've happened if there wasn't a snow storm yesterday. But we do know that the numbers were down on election day.

[tomder55]

The good news is that Pilip ;a relative unknown when the campaign now has name recognition. She vows to run again in the fall .The Dems have an Israel problem that threatens to blow up their coalition. Running an ex- IDF candidate can only help widen the fissure.

The bad news is that Repubs are notoriously slow learners often resembling Charlie Brown attempting a FG with Lucy holding the ball


A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969) - Kick the Football Scene (4/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

[tomder55]

Wooohoooo ! The House passed a continuing resolution avoiding a shut down. They did this by stripping the bill of the contentious bits about funding Ukraine and Israel.

As the WSJ writes

Congress has wasted half the fiscal year on government funding—and in the end is passing largely what Mr. McCarthy negotiated a year ago. Such are the realities of divided government, and a House GOP majority with too many Members whose only cause is themselves.

Who Lost the Budget Deal? - WSJ

[tomder55]

Deja Vu all over again as Yogi said

MTG has introduced a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson .

Why ? Well the Repubs passed a $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill with the help of House Dems The vote was 286-134

Enraged Over Spending Bill, Greene Threatens to Oust Johnson - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

“It’s more of a warning than a pink slip,” Greene told reporters. “I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos. But this is basically a warning and it’s time for us to go through the process, take our time and find a new speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority, instead of standing with the Democrats.”

Republicans take a tough vote on funding and face a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (nbcnews.com)


Now it is true that Johnson promised a return to the normal process of individual spending bills brought to the floor, debated, and voted on .Instead of the never ending parade of omnibus bills.

But what is he supposed to do with maybe a 2 vote majority ? The split inside the Repubs guarantees that the only way to get legislation passed is to build a coalition.

As the emperor said 'elections have consequences '

[tomder55]

And then there was one .

Repub Rep Mike Gallagher(Wisconsin) announced he was bolting shortly after MTG announced she was moving to oust Speaker Johnson. That leaves the Repub majority at one




Gallagher is no back bencher . He is chair of the very important select Committee on China. He had already announced he was not seeking reelection. His sudden departure before the end of his term is a shock.

Two special elections before November can shift the majority to the Dems
In NY April 30 ,the Dems are favored in one ;and the special election to replace Kevin McCarthy in California will have a run off election May 21 .

If the Dems take the House say goodby to any chance of holding Quid Pro Joe accountable for the Biden Crime Family. That would appear to be the biggest consequence since the idiot Repubs have blown any chance to get their agenda passed.

Say hello to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries .

The only good news from this is that he will leave the House past the state deadline to have a special election . So at least the Dems can't take that seat before November .

[tomder55]

Say hello to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries .

Speaker Johnson is the titular head of a coalition government. But the only agenda being passed is the Dem agenda . Yeah the foreign aid package; with aid to Ukraine , that was passed through Rules committee has Speaker Johnson's name on it .But it would've gone nowhere without the Dems coming to the rescue ;and Clueless Joe's endorsement. 3 Repubs voted against sending it to the floor. But 4 Dems voted with 5 Repubs from the war party to advance the bill .

The Rules committee typically is stacked with loyalists to the Speaker .

[tomder55]

One has to wonder how much $$$$$$$$$ went into the pockets of Congress by defense contractors for them to approve this $95 billion weapons package ????????????

Israel, Ukraine, Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Acts - One Pager.pdf (house.gov)

Statement from President Joe Biden on House Passage of the National Security Package | The White House

The proponents cynically argue that Ukraine and Israel fight so that the US won't have to fight.
Pence warns of U.S. military clash with Russia if Ukraine loses (yahoo.com)

But the bill throws almost $15 billion for US troops in operational areas in Europe and the ME .

We are actively engaged providing intel to both Israel and Ukraine ;and actively fighting Iran proxies Houthis ;and recently used US assets to down Iranian drones and missiles.

The Compost reports that Ukraine defies US calls for them ending attacks inside Russia.
Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries deepen tensions with U.S. - The Washington Post

And Israel correctly is at odds with Clueless Joe's calls for restraint.

[jlisenbe]

At least we have lots and lots of money sitting around idle in the Treasury just waiting to be spent for all of this.

I am convinced that if the crooks we have in Congress had to raise taxes to pay for this spending, then they would either figure out a way to get the money by cuts in other areas, or more likely would just say, "Sorry, but we can't do this." My wife and I reach that conclusion frequently in our own finances. It's really not unusual, Congress.