Kevin McCarthy Did This To Himself

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | September 29, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | September 29, 2023 |

I have zero sympathy for the Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, but I do not envy his position. To be clear, Kevin McCarthy put himself into this position. In January this year, after 15 votes, the Republicans finally elected McCarthy as Speaker, but it required one concession that has put us where we are today: At any point, a Republican Congress person — any Republican Congress person — could call for another vote on McCarthy’s Speakership.

Another vote might lead to another 15 rounds or more, or it could lead to McCarthy’s ouster because he would not have the Republican votes necessary from his own majority party to maintain his office.

The Democrats might have helped McCarthy out at one point. McCarthy, after all, cut a bipartisan deal with Democrats a few months ago to avert a government default — and the near-certain tanking of our economy. In reality, McCarthy has to make a bipartisan deal now to avoid and/or end the shutdown. He has to work with Democrats, but doing so will mean a vote on whether he gets to remain Speaker. Matt Gaetz and the hard-right Republicans have all but assured it. The Democrats might have been in a better mood to save McCarthy’s job a few weeks ago, reasoning that whoever is elected next will be even worse.

But Democrats are especially not inclined to help out McCarthy now. Why? Because Kevin McCarthy authorized an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden — without a vote — to appease the same hard-right Republicans who now refuse to cooperate with him. If Matt Gaetz calls for a vote, the Democrats are going to stand by and watch McCarthy twist in the wind.

Today, Kevin McCarthy thought that he could make an effort to make it look like the House Republicans want to avert a shutdown. He put a stopgap bill up for a vote that would fund the government temporarily. The Senate — controlled by Democrats — wouldn’t have agreed to the stopgap bill, but McCarthy could at least give the illusion that he was putting the ball into the Democrats’ court.

Alas, McCarthy couldn’t even get the stopgap bill passed. Twenty-one members of his own party voted with Democrats and against Kevin McCarthy. Twenty-one is one more than the number of Republicans who initially refused to vote for McCarthy as Speaker in January. He gave the Republicans exactly what they wanted in the impeachment inquiry, and he lost support.

The government is going to shut down. The 21 Republicans who voted against this stopgap measure are almost certainly in safe, ruby-red districts, which means that it’s going to be the Republicans in swing districts who will pay in the 2024 elections. McCarthy is sacrificing his most vulnerable members to once again placate 20 hard-right Republicans who cannot and will never be placated.

McCarthy still could get a bipartisan stopgap passed, but it would mean losing the Speakership. He won’t. McCarthy is going to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of federal workers, millions of people who depend on the federal government, and potentially even lives to keep a job he may end up losing anyway.