Opinion: McCarthy Gave Too Much
Kevin McCarthy has become Speaker of the House, but at what cost? Throughout the course of the historic five-day, 15-ballot process, McCarthy gave up much of the power of the Speakership due to the demands of a far-right group of representatives. Some of the forced concessions may have been positive changes. For instance, it is now easier to oust a Speaker and lawmakers are allowed 72 hours to read a bill. However, many of the forced concessions went too far, or they were straight-up dangerous for the future of the House and Speakership.
One of the most dangerous demands by the far-right representatives deals with the debt ceiling. They have demanded two new pre-requisites for raising the debt ceiling: Significant budget cuts (most likely to programs like Medicaid or Social Security) and a plan to balance the government’s check book by the end of the decade. While this already sounds bad, it unfortunately gets much worse.
On Friday, January 13, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the United States would hit its debt limit on Thursday, January 19. A few hours prior to publishing, Janet Yellen announced the United States hit its debt limit. Typically, Congress simply raises the ceiling before this can happen, avoiding economic harm and the disruption of global financial stability. However, following McCarthy’s deal with the far-right representatives, this may not be possible. Congress isn’t positioned to raise the ceiling unless the Biden Administration agrees to considerable government spending cutbacks, which it has promised to fight. Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that these threats “will not work,” and the Biden administration would not be held hostage to the far-right demands.
The good news is that the concessions and new rules are temporary, as the House adopts new rules every two years when it goes into session. The bad news? Two years is plenty of time for the extreme right of the Republican party to do irreparable damage to the United States. Besides the potential economic crisis that could arise from an upcoming debt ceiling battle, far-right representatives in the House support many highly unpopular policies like nationwide abortion bans and further limits on immigration.
To secure the Speakership, McCarthy placed himself under the thumb of the Freedom Caucus. McCarthy has given them a position and the power to enact much of their agenda. While the Freedom Caucus holds nowhere near enough seats to pass legislation alone, they hold enough to veto and thus prohibit the enactment of many mainstream Republican objectives, as well as any bipartisan legislation they disagree with. Ultimately, they possess the power to harm their party’s reputation and squander any chance at achieving core legislative goals for the next two years.
The precarious position that Kevin McCarthy has put himself, his party, and his country in is no joke. By giving into the demands of his extremist colleagues, he has jeopardized the stability, safety, and power of the United States. To achieve the Speakership, he has risked the future of the American people. McCarthy's power grab, in the end, wasn’t worth it—He gave up too much with little hope for redemption.
"Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy" by Kevin McCarthy is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.