It’s a bad idea for people who are standing on thin ice to start pouring hot water everywhere, but apparently Kevin McCarthy didn’t get the memo. You have doubtlessly seen the negative quotes from the New York Times, which were leaked by enemies of McCarthy (of which there is no small supply, evidently) which quoted McCarthy trashing Steve Scalise and Jodey Arrington as “ineffective” and “incompetent” relatively speaking.
That didn’t make him a lot of points. That was last Thursday, that that particular bombshell exploded.
Now, today, McCarthy was speaking at the New York Stock Exchange about how he would cut SNAP benefits as part of a plan to balance the budget, which got John Fetterman to remark, “Cut SNAP for families and kids while pushing tax cuts for billionaires? Not on my watch.” Then Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) called the proposal a “pro-starvation agenda” on Twitter.
Not making a lot of allies, this proposal. This is why discussion started last Thursday about McCarthy being removed as Speaker, maybe for good. Axios:
What they’re saying: A GOP lawmaker accused McCarthy of using Scalise and Arrington as scapegoats before budget and debt ceiling negotiations have fully imploded.
- “The members I’ve spoken with are just stunned by his rebuking of his budget chair, and certainly of our leadership,” another House Republican told Axios.
- “I can’t imagine [he will last an entire term].”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) – one of McCarthy’s 20 defectors who sits on the Budget Committee — blasted the infighting and called for McCarthy to take a larger role.
- “The agreements made by Speaker McCarthy, among other things, is to begin the ten year balanced budget NOW and with his initiatives & directives, it’s HIS responsibility to get the 218 votes to ensure our nation’s financial security JUST AS HE DID IN SECURING THE 218 votes for speaker.”
Behind the scenes: The report has reopened old wounds between McCarthy and Scalise — who was previously seen as a rival and potential speaker contender if the California Republican failed to obtain the gavel.
Scalise might obtain the gavel. That very well could happen. Axios went out of its way to state that “House conservatives say they aren’t ready to pull the trigger on a motion to vacate that could oust McCarthy as speaker. But this has ramped up the level of conversations.”
Again, that was before SNAP came to the table. The proposal that would include cutting SNAP is speculated to arrive DOA at the Senate and it’s fully anticipated that the blow back from that will include a motion to vacate McCarthy as Speaker.
Meanwhile, the GOP dream of McCarthy putting together a plan that will balance the budget in ten years keeps receding like the horizon.
He’s already lasted more Scramuccis than many of us thought he would. If House GOPers start going on record about how stupid his SNAP proposal is (even though they’ve LOVE to end all such stuff – they just know they’re in deep enough sh!t with voters already!) then I’d say it’s ‘tick-tock mothef@cker’ time. My fear is that bad as Scalise would be (and it would be bad – in part because he’d be a more effective leader and is as hard-core conservative as it gets) the KKKrazy KKKaucus will wind up putting one of their own in the Speaker’s Chair.
Putting a Marjie Kooky Pants in the Speaker’s chair? That might not be as bad as you think. She and the rest of the Klown Kar of rectums would get plenty of attention and even if it started off favorably in the press, that would not last long. And getting one of these yahoos all kinds of air time while they’re spouting their stupid shit while sitting in the chair? Not sure that’d go over too well with the yahoos who elected them in the first place. Let’s face it, having Kooky in the national, hell international, press continually might just get voters back home to think they might can do a bit better next election particularly when her cohorts in kookiness are all standing around her saying “oh yeah, you go speaker”.
Having someone competent? That would not work out so nicely.
Arrington isn’t someone I’d trust – I got his first newsletter after he took office, read several blatant lies, blasted him via email, and unsubscribed.
People are just now getting their SNAP benefit cuts. People, children, are not able to pay for food. Especially in Red states like Texas. This is millions of people, 3.6 million in Texas alone. A 340 million dollar decrease in food funding from February to March. Food banks are going to be overrun. Republicans may see this as a good thing, I suspect they think pulling peoples food benefits will force them to work more hours at low paying jobs. Taking food away from children seems to be the republican plan to balance the budget.
I bet I could buy a lot of mac and cheese for kids from mccarthy donating just one of his thousand dollar suits
Meanwhile we give texASS oil corporations BILLIONS in free money while we bleat that the climate is burning AND they are making BILLIONS in quarterly profits off of oil taken from OUR property….
Those are $1k suits? Must be the way he wears them because they look like they came from Good Will or something. Learn something new every day. lol
I’m so sick of the GOP , they don’t care about helping the people who need help the most , like single mothers trying to feed their children because of dead beat dads . The GOP only takes care of the rich .
The gop couldn’t pass those sh1tty laws without Democrat support…
Actually, a lot of them they do much like that obscenity of a tax cut in 2017. When they have Congress and the w.h. it gets pretty easy.
The gopigs have been pressed to provide a budget by Joe before sitting down to talk. This is just KKKevin’s fig leaf so he can blame the Dems for the default! 😡 The Federalist society would love to see a default, they are strictly a libertarian group!
It’s amazing when cockroaches start realizing that they are cockroaches…
President Biden should offer to lower Federal funding for disasters to 50%. That will not only lower the deficit but also allow states to show us how great they are at “bootstrapping”. He should also propose no Federal disaster assistance to states with no state income tax.
What you’re suggesting would violate the federal statute that sets forth how FEMA operates. Now, in theory this or any President could be dickish and deny a request from a Governor to designate a place a federal disaster area but there are all kinds of political problems that would ensue. And having spent a couple of years as a DTE with FEMA and knowing the impact a disaster has on people… Well, even for CONservatives I just can’t get behind using federal disaster declarations (or denying them) as a political tactic.
Ok. Let me then. I have no problem showing voters the error of their ways…and showing those who don’t vote why their vote matters.