Tag Archives: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

Refusing To Let The Newly-Elected Congress Do Their Job

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According to the U.S. Constitution, spending bills initiate in the U.S. House of Representatives. There is a specific budget process (that has been ignored since 2007) that is supposed to be followed. There is also a new Republican majority  in the House of Representatives that will be seated in January. Theoretically, they would be the ones to set the budget for the coming fiscal year. They were elected in the hope that they would put the brakes on the runaway spending of the Biden administration. That’s one of many reasons Republicans won the House. Republicans did not take the Senate. One of the reasons for that may be found in the actions of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Aside from directing funding away from candidates who might not have supported him, his voting record is questionable at best. Right now he is part of a group of Senators working to pass a spending bill that will usurp the power of the incoming House of Representatives.

On Tuesday morning, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is threatening to tank the legislation of Senate Republicans who back the omnibus spending bill being considered this week, setting up a showdown with his counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Bills from Republican senators, including McConnell himself, will be “dead on arrival” in the House under his speakership, McCarthy warned, throwing his weight behind a letter signed by 13 Republicans in the House vowing to whip against legislation from lawmakers who cast a “yes” vote later this week on the spending bill.

I totally support Representative McCarthy on this move.

The article continues:

McCarthy has publicly pressed McConnell to change course on the omnibus, but a conservative flank in the House wants McCarthy to go further and “declare war” on McConnell-backed bills if he votes for the $1.7 trillion spending bill. McCarthy is currently seeking to court a handful of defections within his conference that threaten to derail his speakership bid, given the narrow 222-seat majority House Republicans will have in January.

The group of 13 congressmen is demanding the Senate “refrain from entertaining any spending bill that extends beyond the first few months” of the new year so that the GOP can negotiate a budget when it has control of the lower chamber.

“We are obliged to inform you that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill — including the Republican leader,” the Monday letter sent to GOP senators said.

“Senate Republicans have the 41 votes necessary to stop this and should do so now and show the Americans who elected you that they weren’t wrong in doing so,” the letter continued. “This slated omnibus spending bill is an indefensible assault on the American people. It is an assault on the separation of powers. It is an assault on fiscal responsibility. It is an assault on basic civic decency.”

If this bill is not stopped, then there is no reason to vote for a Republican. They are as tone-deaf to the wishes of the American people as the Democrats.

Why Many Americans Don’t Trust Politicians

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On Monday, Breitbart posted the following headline:

SOURCES: McConnell Caves to Pelosi, Schumer, Allows JCPA Media Cartel Bailout Bill to Be Included in Defense Package

The laweconcenter points out some of the legal issues with the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. Please read the entire article for the details, but here is a summary of the problems:

1. JCPA MAY VIOLATE THE FIRST AMENDMENT

2. NEWS CARTELS HARM CONSUMERS

3. THE BILL CONFLICTS WITH COPYRIGHT LAW

4. THE JCPA SUPPRESSES COMPETITION

I can understand why the mainstream media would want to suppress competition–they are losing viewers and listeners at an alarming rate. I doubt the NPR would be on the air without government subsidies (another questionable spending priority by Congress).

Breitbart reports:

Over objections from House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, the likely next speaker of the House come January 3 of next year, other congressional leaders acquiesced to lobbyist pressure and agreed to include the JCPA in the base text of the NDAA. McCarthy was the only member of congressional leadership to fight back against the inclusion, but was overruled three to one after McConnell caved.

We obviously need new Republican leadership in the Senate.

In an article posted November 30th, Breitbart notes:

Even with the hastily-added Senate amendment aimed at addressing conservative concerns regarding collusion between the media industry and Big Tech on the censorship of competitors, the bill still contains plenty of ways for the cartel to sideline conservative media.

Provisions to ensure the cartel cannot discriminate on the basis of “viewpoint” are particularly unconvincing. The pretexts used by social media companies, “fact checkers,” and other arms of the corporate censorship apparatus are almost always viewpoint-neutral. No one is censored for being a conservative, say the censors: they are censored for “misinformation,” “hate speech,” “conspiracy theories,” and other purportedly viewpoint-neutral reasons.

Congress has no business meddling in the exercise of free speech or adding that meddling to a defense bill.

 

I’m Not Holding My Breath

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During her reign as Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi established a number of precedents. Some of them were highly partisan should have been undone by the Republicans. However, they were not. So here we are, waiting for Karma.

On Wednesday PJ Media posted an article about some of the actions of Speaker Pelosi and some of the promises made by Kevin McCarthy.

The article notes:

Last year Pelosi and the Democrats stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments over past comments she made, and later censured and removed Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from his committee assignments over a video he tweeted.

Republicans argued at the time that Democrats were establishing a “dangerous” precedent whereby the “majority party can punish a member of the minority party by removing their committee assignments.”

In a sense, they were warned that they would “rue the day” they established this precedent, and that day is hopefully coming soon. It took long enough, but the Republican Party finally secured the House Majority on Tuesday evening, which also means that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will be Speaker of the House.

McCarthy has repeatedly promised that he would remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from their respective committees. There are more legitimate reasons to remove all four of them from their committee assignments than there were to remove Greene and Gosar. Waters infamously incited violence by urging people to confront Trump officials in public, Omar has a habit of making blatantly anti-Semitic statements, Swalwell had an affair with a Chinese spy, and Schiff lied about seeing intelligence proving Trump colluded with Russia.

If the Republicans ever want to win another election, Kevin McCarthy needs to keep this promise. Many of us are tired of being perpetual wimps. I know it’s good to be the ‘nice guy,’ but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself. Mealy-mouthed Republicans who do nothing will not get re-elected. The MAGA crowd that the establishment fears will primary them and win.

 

Waiting To See The Impact Of The Lies

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On Friday, Hot Air reported that The New York Times had the tapes to back up their claim that Kevin McCarthy thought Trump should resign and he would take that recommendation to the president and that he hoped Twitter would ban the MAGA types in the caucus like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert who had pushed “rigged election” incitement before the insurrection. When initially faced with the accusation, Kevin McCarthy, in the true spirit of a Washington politician, lied about it.

Meanwhile, The Washington Examiner reported on Friday:

House Republicans appear to be in no rush to consider dumping House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over his double-speak reaction to the Jan. 6 riots and tapped comments that former President Donald Trump should “resign” over the affair.

According to multiple insiders, Republicans are first looking to see what Trump says (or doesn’t) on the growing scandal and then hope to kick questions about leadership toward a time after the fall elections so it doesn’t distract from the goal of taking back control of the House.

It doesn’t matter if the Republicans take control of the House in November if the uniparty is still in control. The statements by Kevin McCarthy indicate to me that he is a member of the uniparty threatened by the popularity of President Trump.

The Washington Examiner concludes:

Importantly, Trump and McCarthy talked Thursday, and the former president isn’t upset in part because McCarthy never pushed for Trump’s resignation, fought impeachment, and subsequently moved to punish Republicans who did vote to impeach.

“It appears that Trump doesn’t care and that McCarthy changing his tune showed he capitulated to him,” said a longtime GOP insider.

Since Trump left office, McCarthy has stayed loyal to the former president and is considered a close ally and adviser himself as the former president eyes another run for office. Trump is also known to hate the press, and the media are already cheering him on to dump McCarthy’s friendship over the resignation call.

Should Trump give McCarthy a pass, “McCarthy will survive,” said a Republican lobbyist close to House GOP leaders.

Helping McCarthy’s cause is the expectation that the GOP will win control of the House and the party’s goal of keeping the focus on Election Day and not internal politics.

Also working for McCarthy, insiders said, is that those on the leadership team, notably No. 2 Rep. Steve Scalise, are not eager to rock the boat because they may get tossed in the storm.

“Scalise wouldn’t challenge McCarthy unless it was a virtual guarantee he’d get the job,” said one ally. “He’s already set to be the House majority leader in a Republican House and McCarthy’s heir apparent,” said the ally, adding, “Why risk it?”

I suspect that there was a deal made that will not be made public that will keep McCarthy in office at least temporarily. This is something to watch over the next two years. It may eventually have a bearing on the next presidential election.

Rumor has it that the tape was leaked by Liz Cheney. The swamp desperately wants to divide the Republican party.

Let The Games Begin

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It’s no secret that the 2022 election season began in November of 2020. We still have more than a year to go before that election, and the jockeying for position is obvious. One aspect of this pre-election maneuvering is the Democrats’ formation of a committee to investigate the events of January 6th. There ave been some deals made, and there are now five Republicans that have been chosen for the committee. These selections are subject to the approval of Speaker Pelosi. Three of the Republicans chosen voted against the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Yesterday NewsMax posted an article about the formation of the committee.

The article reports:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was noncommittal in approving of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Republican picks for her Jan. 6 select committee, saying she will decide when she is “ready.”

“I’m not prepared to make a statement on that, but I’m considering his proposals,” Pelosi told CNN on Tuesday, the New York Post reported. “I want to be clear how people voted affirming the election of Joe Biden is not a criterion for service.”

Among McCarthy’s five picks, three voted against certifying the Electoral College votes: Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind.; House Judiciary Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas.

Banks is leading the GOP on the panel and will also be joined on the committee by House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis, R-Ill.; and Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D.

The committee, put in place by Pelosi after the Senate failed to pass the Jan. 6 Commission, will hold its first hearing next week, taking testimony from law enforcement officials who were assaulted by protesters.

McCarthy has been critical of the partisan bent on the committee to review the events of Jan. 6, and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., questions Pelosi’s own handling of the security of the Capitol, potentially bringing some scrutiny on the originator of the panel.

Pelosi has permitted just five Republicans on the 12-member committee and has the authority to veto selections.

This is going to be interesting to watch. The purpose of the committee is to smear President Trump and somehow connect him to the incursion into the Capitol Building on January 6th. I suspect that if Speaker Pelosi feels that is not possible with the Republican committee selections, she will either refuse to accept the Republican committee members, cancel the committee, and blame the Republicans or she will begin a media blitz to discredit the people chosen.

Stay tuned.