The House GOP is Self-destructing; this is Bad for our Nation and its Far-Right Must be Replaced in the Next Election if Not Before
1) The House GOP cannot agree upon or sustain its leadership. First, it put Kevin McCarthy through an excruciating series of votes to become Speaker before it turned around and fired him with 8 rebels led by Matt Gaetz. Then it went through multiple experienced candidates before settling on the very conservative and extremely inexperienced Mike Johnson. The far-right caucus has amassed unusual power to dethrone Republican House Speakers.
2) The House GOP has been instituting impeachment probes with no justification. It is seeking to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas because he has not been successful in controlling immigration at our Southern border – in other words he is doing a bad job in their perspective. This does not meet the required constitutional standard for impeachment -- high crimes and misdemeanors – according to Professor Jonathan Turley, the GOP’s go to impeachment expert. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4398355-gop-witness-in-biden-probe-says-mayorkas-conduct-not-impeachable/ It is seeking to impeach President Joe Biden for the acknowledged misconduct of his son, Hunter Biden, during a time when Joe Biden was not even in office, and Hunter Biden was in serious difficulty with substance addiction. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-impeachment-inquiry-mike-johnson-94884b322da40ca9315ac5f4e73a3e86
3) The House GOP was the least productive in doing their job, actually passing legislation, since the Great Depression – 27 bills enacted into law, as compared to the preceding ten years average of 391 bills enacted into law. https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2023/12/21/congress-ineffective-2023 One common excuse is that the House GOP has a very narrow majority, but so does the Senate where most of the actual bi-partisan compromises are struck; the House GOP is saddled with a far-right minority that is simply unable to get to “yes” with their own members, let alone with the opposing party and the President. They use the House GOP caucus rules of their own making to block bi-partisan compromises from even getting to a vote.
4) Defaulting on the nation’s debt. The nation’s debt is an agreement to repay the nation’s creditors for the nation’s borrowing. We came within 2 days of the first ever default on the nation’s debt this spring due to recalcitrant far right members of the House GOP. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-lifting-us-debt-limit-2023-06-03/ The nation’s debt is an accumulation of the budget decisions by Congress and the President since the nation’s inception. Donald Trump, during his four years in office, was a prime contributor to the nation’s debt due to his large tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations and responses to the Covid pandemic. https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-national-debt-donald-trump-barack-obama-ee3e613646fe500edf803e57959c776e This has caused two downgrades in the nation’s credit rating. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/moodys-changes-outlook-united-states-ratings-negative-2023-11-10/ Although our nation’s economy is strong, our perceived political cohesion to deal with rising debt levels is quite weak.
5) Passing the nation’s budget. Each year, Congress must pass a budget of spending and revenues for the coming year. If they fail to do so, the government shuts down. The House GOP was unable to agree on a budget; ultimately House Democrats joined with a portion of GOP members to pass a stop gap budget only days short of a government shut down; over 90 House GOP members opposed the bill. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/federal-government-shutdown-funding-11-14-23/index.html The next deadline is January 19, the House and Senate leadership have just agreed (actually re-agreed) on the top line figure for the budget, but they will now need to pass all the implementing legislation in the face of intractable hard right GOP opposition in the House. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/congress-reaches-deal-much-spend-2024-shutdown-deadline-nears-rcna132739
6) Foreign Affairs. As a nation, we have been financially supporting the militaries of Ukraine and Israel after the surprise attacks on their innocent citizens by Russia and Hamas respectively, and the ongoing wars resulting therefrom. President Biden has submitted a supplemental aid package combining increased funding for Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian assistance in Gaza with increased funding for improved border security and security in the Indo-Pacific (i.e. Taiwan and the Philippines). https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/20/fact-sheet-white-house-calls-on-congress-to-advance-critical-national-security-priorities/ Hard right Republicans in the House are deeply opposed to funding Ukraine, but not Israel. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/14/republican-house-ukraine-support-gaetz It is likely they are influenced in part by the would-be Trump/Putin alliance. Senate Republicans are trying to negotiate a bi-partisan deal with the Biden Administration and with Senate Democrats to restrict immigration on the southern border by curtailing asylum opportunities for immigrants. Far right House Republicans see this as negotiating leverage to further restrict immigration opportunities to the US.
Governing. Unfortunately, the far-right members of the GOP have become far more dedicated to verbal bomb throwing on cable tv shows than to responsibly governing our nation, a nation which has become widely and bitterly divided by Trumpism and its most fervent acolytes of authoritarianism and oppression towards others not of their persuasion and creed. We do need powerful and persuasive advocacy for divergent points of view, but most importantly we need statesman and leaders in our nation’s Capitol dedicated to resolving together the many tough challenges facing our country and our planet. The House GOP leadership will need to decide to work with House Democrats as opposed to perpetually mollifying the rump Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosart and Marjorie Taylor Greene faction of the party which has become so besotted with and ensorceled by the self-serving Trumpian lies emanating from Mar a Lago.