In the end it was typically Republican… confusion, chaos and recrimination. Kevin McCarthy finally got his gavel after five days of abject humiliation, its worth greatly diminished. The ever-despicable Matt Gaetz first got a standing ovation before being descended upon and almost physically attacked once it became clear they had miscalculated the magic number and his “present” vote only insured yet another round of dysfunction. After all, basic math, like all other fact-based disciplines, has never been a GOP strong suit.
Once Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, following a speech that reminded America how much better things could have been, officially handed McCarthy what he has sold his soul to obtain, the new sheriff quickly made clear big changes had arrived. The US is a system of checks and balances, declared McCarthy and now there will be plenty of the former. Of course what McCarthy’s nihilists plan to put the brakes on is reality, and the constructive governance it requires.
Like the certification of electoral votes, raising the debt ceiling used to be merely a pro forma procedural matter. Congress, as the spending authority of the US, would authorize borrowing more money to meet debt obligations it had already undertaken in order to maintain the full faith and credit of America, something vital to the global financial system. Now at a staggering $31 trillion, there is zero doubt defaulting on our debt would unleash economic misery on everybody everywhere. We epitomize “too big too fail.”
But since the Tea Party, the forefather of MAGA, Republicans see raising the debt ceiling when one of their own isn’t in the White House as a chance to play chicken and enhance their “budget hawk” bona fides for the base back home. Forget that they fell over each other to needlessly add more than $2 trillion in debt passing Trump’s tax cut at full employment; that money went to the job creators, not the welfare queens.
There is little indication that any in the MAGA House caucus view actually going over the cliff and defaulting on US debt as much of a biggie. In fact, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), he of the pre-Inaugural tweet to Mark Meadows demanding Trump declare martial law, made clear shutting down the government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling was his “non-negotiable” to finally vote for McCarthy in round 12.
Of course, the nihilists understand they are in the minority, and have learned from the past how RINO traitors will reach across the aisle to prevent global calamity, so they are doing all they can to hamstring the institution and make McCarthy’s life hard should he by some rare chance act responsibly. The summer recess is probably pushing your luck on the over/under for the first “motion to vacate.” Easter may be the safer bet.
But while economic extortion is the most immediately consequential GOP priority, certainly their “oversight” plans will be ugly and shameless public spectacles. Spitting on the graves of the one million plus US Covid dead Trump directly caused, first through inept negligence toward and then criminal politicization of modern history’s gravest health crisis, Republicans want to revise what we just experienced. Comer of Kentucky’s nomination speech (the 10th?) laid out the narrative to vigorous GOP applause. It was all just lib-driven hype. We damaged our kids overreacting and let China off the hook for causing it. The primary villain? Fauci of course.
That one of this country’s finest can’t retire after a career of sparkling public service without Fox/AM puppets preening for unhinged conspiracists by tarnishing his good name ought to be the line in the sand for honor and decency. It would be great if committee Democrats dedicate their 5-minute blocks to reciting the number of Covid dead within each of their counterpart’s districts, wherever that leads.
But worst of all promises to be a newly created subcommittee to investigate “the weaponization of the federal government.” Translated, this means McCarthy’s crew is coming after the 1/6 Committee. According to Texan Chip Roy, a leader of the speakership insurrection, McCarthy concessions provide the panel with “more resources, more specificity… to go after this recalcitrant Biden Administration.”
How emboldened are the seditionists after last week’s mutiny? Scott Perry of Pennsylvania was at the very center of The Big Lie’s coup plot. He connected Jeffery Clark with the Trump cabal. Clark was an otherwise nondescript environmental lawyer in the DOJ. Only his rabid willingness to challenge without evidence the Presidential vote got him to the cusp of being appointed Attorney General. Had the Justice Department’s leadership not promised a mass resignation and forced Trump to reconsider, a decision he surely regrets to this day, who knows where we’d be right now.
Perry refused to cooperate with the 1/6 Committee, and their final report referred him to the House for sanction. No doubt the willingness of McCarthy to get 100% behind the sham subcommittee went far in pushing Perry to finally change his vote last week. Now he sees no reason why he shouldn’t be allowed to participate in efforts to attack and discredit 18 months of 1/6 findings. “Why should I be limited,” Perry responded when asked by George Stephanopoulos whether he should be excluded from a subcommittee with no other purpose than to sully sworn testimony and exhaustively detailed facts that include his role in organized efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. Like the Covid farce, Democrats will spend all of their time countering fiction with established facts, forced to defend reality against newly empowered gibberish. Comity is sure to suffer.
What America watched play out last week was seditious nihilists successfully force one of our most important institutions to subvert its traditions and established procedures, weakening itself so their future subterfuges will deliver them what their inability to persuade colleagues can’t. They succeeded because critical processes US democracy has in place often depend on at least a modicum of good faith and a minimum of shame; MAGA nihilists possess neither. That all could only watch as they paralyzed their own party from governing clarified yet again that American citizenship requires more than stewing about the price of gas or fear of becoming a crime victim. Now we should understand that, regardless how small the vote differential winds up, if it permits termites to jump from the woodpile onto the foundation, their only purpose will be to gnaw away and destroy as much as they can. In other words… yes, elections do have consequences. BC