Kevin McCarthy’s 269-day House term

S

Peaker was spoiled by his

frequent

rely on bipartisanship.

At least, that’s how some are

by

his fellow Republicans saw it. The

eight

rogue Republican lawmakers who voted on October 1st. 3 to remove the Californian from the speakership, repeatedly complained that he too often turned to Democrats for help in passing major legislation.

The Bakersfield Republican relied on Democrats’ votes to suspend the nation’s debt limit in May and avoid a government shutdown in September.

Replacing McCarthy with Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson should solve that problem and result in a more conservative administration.

But on Tuesday afternoon, Johnson became the latest Republican speaker in the House of Representatives to need Democratic help

to keep Washington running. By a vote of 336-95, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved bills that would delay the government shutdown until next year. But Democrats provided more than half of the votes for the plan, which was supported by only 127 Republicans. Senate Democrats indicated they would approve the bills and President Biden is expected to sign them, despite grumbling from the White House this weekend about House Republicans’ unusual approach to the process.

Johnson’s two-step plan is different from other emergency funding plans. Most bills that avoid a shutdown simply extend funding until a specific calendar date. Johnson’s bills shake the extensions. Funding for Departments Republicans traditionally want to cut Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education would expire on January 19, while the rest of the bills, including those that fund agencies that are traditionally not controversial, such as the military, would expire on February 19 expired. .2.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had previously dismissed the approach, calling it “a recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns.”

The plan was initially championed by the archconservative House Freedom Caucus. But hours before the vote, the group spoke out against the spending bills, complaining that there were no cuts in spending or strengthening of border security.

“While we remain committed to working with Speaker Johnson, we need bold change,” the unsigned statement said said.

Before the vote, Johnson said he sympathized with the far-right party. “I want to make cuts right now,” Johnson said early Tuesday. “But if we have a majority of three votes, as we do now, we do not have the votes to advance that majority.”

Congress must avoid a shutdown that would “unnecessarily harm the American people,” Johnson said. He said his plan would strengthen conservatives as they negotiate with Democrats next year over federal budget spending and funding for Ukraine and Israel.

Johnson said he is not worried about losing his job. “This is a very different situation,” he said.

Johnson’s lack of concern may at least be justified this time, said Norman Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based center-right think tank. Many Republicans harbored deep distrust of McCarthy

did not seem guided by particularly strong ideological views

, even before he became speaker, Ornstein argued. Therefore, “no matter how much McCarthy tried to accommodate a crazy fringe, there will be someone who didn’t like him,” Ornstein added. Johnson, on the other hand, is “clearly a member of the far right,” and ultraconservatives will push him away even further than McCarthy, Ornstein said. By embracing the Freedom Caucus’ proposal for an emergency measure, he signaled to the archconservatives in his party that he was their ally. Even though many Republicans oppose the measure, the memory of the “humiliating farce of the speaker search” still lives on with them and “enough of them are simply pragmatic enough to know that shutting down the government is up to them.” would be to blame’. said Ornstein. Plus, Johnson is still in his honeymoon period, Ornstein noted. Less than two weeks have passed since his group unanimously decided to hand him the gavel. “By the way, that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods next time,” he added. “I don’t think Johnson has the buffer for another cleanup [extension] that he can get away with it.”