Speaker Mike Johnson has inherited the same problems that faced Kevin McCarthy. Turns out, he doesn’t have a solution either.
Government funding runs out next week, House Republicans keep tanking their own appropriations bills, and the Speaker of the House is weighing whether he can get away with a stopgap spending solution.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the exact situation Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) found himself in September—only now, it’s November, and it’s Speaker Mike Johnson’s problem.
Republicans are hoping Johnson will somehow deliver a solution to all of their legislative woes. But without a recognition that the House GOP isn’t going to magically come to agreement about a host of issues—like overall spending levels, individual policies in appropriations bills, or the fact that the Democratic Senate and the Democratic President aren’t just going to swallow Republican bills—a solution doesn’t appear in the offing.
“It’s the same. It’s the same set of issues. Again, the same tectonic plates,” said Rep. John Duarte (R-CA). “New speaker, nothing’s changed.”
It exists now purely to be used by Republicans as a stick to beat Democrats with. They’re literally holding the country hostage to try to force Democrats to meet their demands. If things were sane there would be a deadline to meet and if the deadline wasn’t met it would automatically default to the previous years budget with a small across the board bump for inflation. They will never allow that though because it completely nullifies the threat.