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GOP Freedom Caucus seems less concerned with liberty and more with shaking down Congress [1]

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Date: 2023-01-04

Did Kevin really warn us about the invasion of the body snatchers. Over 90% of the GOP caucus is behind McCarthy, including half of the Freedom Caucus members, Jim Jordan, and Previous Guy. Yet they’re being terrorized by some #neverKevin crazies and a few dimwits who could also be indicted in a few months for their J6 activity. For example: Kevin McCarthy would have to commit to “shut down the government rather than raise the debt ceiling” in order to win the support of his opponents, Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, told reporters Wednesday afternoon. Because that’s how you govern if you’re a Republican, you crater the US economy by demonizing RINOs and declare your workplace a swamp.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY would have to commit to “shut down the government rather than raise the debt ceiling” in order to win the support of his opponents, Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “That’s a non-negotiable item,” said Norman, a leader of the squad objecting to McCarthy, a California Republican, becoming speaker of the House.

A reporter asked Norman if he meant default on the debt, as the debt ceiling and a government shutdown are not directly linked. “That’s why you need to be planning now what agencies — what path you’re gonna take now to trim government. Tell the programs you’re going to get to this number. And you do that before chairs are picked,” he said, referring to the process of choosing and installing House committee chairs.

A quirk of parliamentary procedure requires Congress to authorize spending, then appropriate money for those authorized expenditures, and then to authorize the Treasury Department to issue debt in order to pay for that appropriated money. Some constitutional scholars argue that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional, but currently both parties recognize it as a legal and valid restriction on the government’s ability to issue debt. If the Treasury defaults on its debt, the result could be a global economic crisis, as many companies and foreign governments hold their capital reserves in Treasury notes. If those notes can’t be turned into dollars, payments won’t be made, producing a cascading collapse of counter-parties that had been expecting those payments, and so on. In 2011, the threat of default downgraded the U.S. government’s credit worthiness and led to a major stock market crash, but a deal was struck before the U.S. defaulted. The debt limit is expected to be hit sometime in the summer. Democrats declined to take the opportunity to eliminate or raise it further during the lame-duck period when they still controlled the House. Another reporter noted to Norman that House Republicans lack the power to dictate those spending terms to Democratic President Joe Biden’s White House and a Democratic-controlled Senate, a reality Norman conceded. His band of Freedom Caucus members, however, was willing to use what leverage they had. theintercept.com/...

x NEW🚨 Mike Pence throws support behind McCarthy, encouraging House Republicans to give him speaker position - Fox News — Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) January 4, 2023

Will this struggle leave us wondering why the House Republican leadership is resisting commitments to do what it led us to believe Republicans would do if elected into the majority?

My (Andrew McCarthy’s) impression is that there is not a single explanation for the House Republican impasse over the speaker’s job. Although the 20 GOP representatives who have now voted against Kevin McCarthy six times are being described in the public commentary as if they were a single bloc, they are not. There is a small Never McCarthy subset, and a bigger group that would vote for McCarthy if they get concessions, of the sort described in John McCormack’s NR report. After two days of this frustrating process, I think the two groups need to be analyzed separately.

https://t.co/JfJrF0Jhvg

x Jim Jordan

Brian Babin

Andy Biggs

Matt Gaetz

Louie Gohmert

Paul Gosar

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Andy Harris

Jody Hice

Scott Perry

were all at the December 21 coup planning meeting.



Why were they requesting pardons?



Hold them all accountable!



THREAD 🧵 pic.twitter.com/vCRSh8WLsy — Respectful Dialogue (@timeindawater1) December 31, 2022

x Right now a handful of Republicans are holding us hostage from completing our mission: serving our country. Let’s hope that changes soon and we can start taking the fight to the Democrats, where it belongs. pic.twitter.com/1BzpxufRjE — Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) January 5, 2023

House Freedom Caucus

Rep. Scott Perry (PA)*

Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO)

Rep. Chip Roy (TX)

Rep. Jim Jordan (OH)*

Rep. Warren Davidson (OH)

Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ)*

Rep. Dan Bishop (NC)

Rep. Mo Brooks (AL)

Rep. Ken Buck (CO)

Rep. Ted Budd (NC)

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (NC)

Rep. Ben Cline (VA)

Rep. Michael Cloud (TX)

Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA)

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (TN)

Rep. Byron Donalds (FL)

Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC)

Rep. Russ Fulcher (ID)

Rep. Matt Gaetz*

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX)*

Rep. Bob Good (VA)

Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ)*

Rep. Mark Green (TN)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA)*

Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA)

Rep. Andy Harris (MD)*

Rep. Diana Harshbarger (TN)

Rep. Yvette Herrell (NM)

Rep. Jody Hice (GA)*

Rep. Clay Higgins (LA)

Rep. Debbie Lesko (AZ)

Rep. Mary Miller (IL)

Rep. Alex Mooney (WV)

Rep. Barry Moore (AL)

Rep. Ralph Norman (SC)

Rep. Gary Palmer (AL)

Rep. Bill Posey (FL)

Rep. Matt Rosendale (MT)

Rep. David Schweikert (AZ)

Rep. Greg Steube (FL)

Rep. Tom Tiffany (WI)

Rep. Randy Weber (TX)

New Members Endorsed By House Freedom Fund

Josh Brecheen (OK)

Eli Crane (AZ)

Anna Paulina Luna (FL)

Max Miller (OH)

x “McCarthy’s mistake was convincing himself that a party obsessed with dominance would reward submission,” writes @michelleinbklyn. https://t.co/7GOBWS9E2n — New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) January 4, 2023

McCarthy evidently believed that by courting Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, an avatar of hyper-performative politics, he could co-opt her wing of the party. He was set to offer her valuable committee assignments, and, according to Draper, had even offered to create a new leadership position for her. But her elevation would be valuable to other Trumpists only if there were concrete things they hoped to accomplish together. Putting Greene on the Oversight Committee does nothing to help those who aspire to her notoriety. They don’t want policy; they want airtime.

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