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It’s no secret that House Republicans have spent the year struggling. Party leaders made promises they couldn’t keep, failed to count well, pushed vulnerable members to cast difficult votes for no benefit, focused on foolish trivialities, and never learned the value of making plans, preferring instead to “wing it” in the hopes of surviving the day.
The chaos and infighting culminated in a historic first: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in early October. After 22 long days in the wilderness, as GOP members considered and rejected a variety of nominated leaders, the party finally handed Mike Johnson the speaker’s gavel.
It created an opportunity of sorts for the House Republican conference. Sure, the year has been filled with embarrassments and failures, but a shift in leadership offered the party the chance to regroup and find its footing anew.
It sounded nice in theory, but it’s not quite working out in practice. NBC News reported:
House Republicans closed out the week by canceling votes on two party-line funding bills in the span of 48 hours, a setback for new Speaker Mike Johnson and a sign of persisting dysfunction in the chamber ahead of a key funding deadline.
I realize that for most normal people, the federal budgetary process is a byzantine mess, but to briefly summarize the basics, there are 12 appropriations bills that finance the government. So far, Congress hasn’t approved any of them.
On Tuesday night, as much of the political world was focused on the latest round of Democratic election victories, House Republican leaders intended to advance a spending package on transportation and housing. They quickly discovered, however, that too many of their own members were not on board — several GOP representatives balked at proposed Amtrak cuts — forcing the party to abandon its plan.
Two days later, House Republican leaders were prepared to approve a different appropriations bill, this one dealing with financial and general government services. Once again, they came to realize that too many of their own members would vote against the measure — it was filled with anti-abortion provisions that couldn’t pass the Senate anyway — so the speaker and his team again pulled the bill from consideration.
At that point, GOP leaders called it a day, and members left Capitol Hill.
“I don’t think the Lord Jesus himself could manage this group,” Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas told NBC News, referring to his own conference. Another House Republican added, “We’re ungovernable.”
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Democrats. Rep. Ted Lieu of California remarked online, “The training wheels fell off for the GOP leadership this week.”
The deadline for a government shutdown is a week from Friday, and at this point, Johnson does not appear to have anything resembling a plan to keep the government’s lights on.
A Washington Post report added, “For the second time this year, the U.S. government on Thursday began making formal preparations for a possible federal shutdown, as hard-line House conservatives once again threatened to leave Congress unable to meet a fast-approaching fiscal deadline.”