Conservatives are still squeezing Speaker Kevin McCarthy in protest, but now moderates are getting their turn.
McCarthy’s No. 2 and No. 3 briefed about a dozen Republicans, mostly from swing districts, on Wednesday about their plans to take up two bills next week: Rep. Andrew Clyde’s (R-Ga.) bid to repeal a Biden administration gun regulation and a separate proposal bill to strengthen limits on taxpayer funding for abortion.
The conference was a rocky one.
It’s like, “Why the hell are we doing this?” According to two House Republicans present, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) posed the question to Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).
The two Republicans went on to say that things escalated when Minnesota Republican Representative Michelle Fischbach approached Mace for criticising other Republicans on national television for their stances on abortion. Mace argued that the GOP is losing the war of public opinion on the issue and that further moving to the right would alienate the moderates who gave the GOP their majority.
The fight between two regular Republicans shows the tremendous pressure McCarthy and his top aides are under as they try to force conservative measures through with a slim majority of only five seats. Centrists can wield similar influence in their own way if they are unhappy enough, and conservative hardliners have attracted headlines by paralysing the House floor by venting their rage at leaders over perceived broken promises.
In reality, next week, Democrats might employ the same obscure strategy that Republican hardliners did this week to urge moderates to join them in blocking floor action. Further setbacks on other issues could add to the shame party leaders have felt during the past few days.
Personal friction among senior GOP leaders is starting to appear as they are pulled by both ideological ends of their party, despite the top three’s public attempts to present a united front. McCarthy and Scalise started publicly blaming one other for this week’s conservative insurrection.
Both of them are decent people. On Thursday, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who represents a swing district, urged his colleagues to “stick together.” It’s a case of “can’t be divided.”
As moderates rally in opposition to the abortion bill, which would permanently enshrine the restrictions commonly referred to as the Hyde Amendment, the finger-pointing may continue. It also applies constraints on spending to the entire government budget, rather than just a subset of programmes.
The minority party in the House typically always tries to use this tactic to delay a final vote on the abortion measure, but some Republicans are privately speculating that their moderates could stage their own rebellion if they joined forces with Democrats. The ensuing uproar might not occur until the following week, though. The abortion funding bill was unexpectedly left off the Republican agenda for the coming week.
It’s a dramatic change from McCarthy’s first six months in charge, when his leadership team was able to mostly gloss over the fundamental disagreements within his conference.
However, the GOP’s fragile truce looks to have fractured after they scored one relatively easy victory on an energy bill and one much greater success on the conservative debt package that Democrats didn’t expect the House to really pass.
Conservatives’ frustration with McCarthy’s arrangement with President Joe Biden on the debt ceiling is at the heart of the problem. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who heads the Trump-aligned Freedom Caucus, said Thursday that his members believe McCarthy “significantly breached” his vows during the speaker race in January when he met with Vice President Joe Biden.
But conservatives are reluctant to explain why they lost faith in McCarthy. Perry’s illuminating response to a question about whether conservatives are angry with McCarthy or Scalise was, “There are obviously multiple issues here that need to be resolved.”
The debt dispute exposed fissures in McCarthy’s leadership that went beyond the discontent of the rank-and-file. The Speaker’s choice of Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Representative Garret Graves (R-La.) to spearhead negotiations with the Biden administration aroused eyebrows.
As a result of being sidelined until the negotiations’ final hours, Scalise and Emmer were more frustrated.
This has reopened old wounds concerning the strained relationship between McCarthy and Scalise, who were known to brazenly eye each other whenever they had the chance. If the midterm elections in November had produced the “red wave” the GOP had hoped for, the two men would have been willing to put their differences behind them. However, the disappointing results and McCarthy’s 15-ballot speakership battle instead sowed distrust between them.
Then, this week, the hard right resistance grew into a full-blown floor rebellion when McCarthy’s debt plan won approval from around two-thirds of House GOP members. Most of the conference is now furious that a small group of extremists has been able to silence their party’s leaders.
You’re making the dog chase its own tail. On Wednesday, a visibly angry Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said, “You’ve got a small group of people who are pissed off that are keeping the House of Representatives from functioning.”
“I think leadership is gonna have to deal with it,” he said.
However, McCarthy’s group’s strategy for doing so is still unknown. McCarthy sent legislators home for the weekend on Wednesday after spending hours in fruitless negotiations with conservatives, buying time but increasing irritation.
The leaders are still having discussions with their critics, but even McCarthy voiced frustration on Wednesday that the critics’ demands weren’t clear.
It’s hard to know what to get for some of these members. McCarthy remarked, “There are a lot of things that are bothering them right now.” We’re in the majority, but only just. There’s some disorder in the air… Let’s simply get down to business and finish off everything on the schedule.
The House will resume its session on Monday, and Scalise has promised that Clyde’s gun bill would be voted on the following day, despite the fact that it still lacks the necessary support.
After a disappointing showing in the midterm elections, Republicans are eager to prove to voters that they can govern. As a result, any delayed floor action when members return next week is likely to raise the blood pressure of House GOP members.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) admitted, “Of course I’m frustrated.” A conservative, in my view, is someone who backs forward progress on conservative legislation. That’s not occurring at the moment, by the way.
