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Matt Gaetz and the House Chaos Caucus
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rfenst Offline
#1 Posted: Wed, Sep 27 2023, 5:46 PM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
Forcing a shutdown would destroy what little bargaining power the GOP has—and its slim majority.


By Karl Rove/WSJ
A stupid, needless government shutdown looms. The culprits aren’t Democrats but hard-right House Republicans who say they won’t agree to a bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the government when the fiscal year ends at midnight Saturday.

They mean it. Twice last week, five Republicans voted with Democrats to stop the House from taking up a Republican-drafted Defense Department appropriations bill. It was an unprecedented breach of party discipline.

This Chaos Caucus’s leader, Florida’s reckless Rep. Matt Gaetz, is practically giddy at the prospect of a shutdown. Though he voted for the Pentagon funding bill to protect his Armed Services Committee seat, he is heading the opposition to a bipartisan continuing resolution. Failure to enact such a stopgap measure this week would mean a shutdown, which Mr. Gaetz predicts in six or eight days will produce “maximum momentum on paradigm-changing” pressure on Democrats to make deep spending cuts.

What blather. Democrats know that when federal offices are shuttered, services curtailed and our military goes without pay, voters generally blame Republicans. And this time they’d be right to do so. Knowing this, Democrats will insist on significant concessions to reopen the government. The shutdown could go on far longer than its advocates predict, and each additional day will provoke more public anger at the GOP.

The damage will likely go well beyond the shutdown. There are 18 GOP representatives in districts President Biden carried in 2020 that will be endangered by these shenanigans. Republicans won the five closest races that flipped control of the House by a combined 7,169 votes of 1,379,398 cast. It doesn’t take many stupid stunts to lose that many votes.

The Chaos Caucus is willing to risk the GOP’s narrow majority because they believe, as Virginia Rep. Bob Good puts it, that most Americans “won’t even miss it if the government is shut down temporarily.” As Mike Myers’s Dr. Evil says, “Riiiighhht.”

When power in Washington is divided between a Democratic president and Senate and a GOP House, the only way for Republicans to make fiscal progress is to negotiate patiently, provide strong and effective messaging and make Democrats take tough votes. It’s the height of arrogance and ignorance to assume that this time—unlike every other time—shutting down the government will make the White House and Senate Democrats give in.

But Mr. Gaetz and his band of egotistical performance artists either are certain they’re the exception to history or don’t care. Take Chaos Caucus member and Arizona freshman Eli Crane. Based on his vast governing experience, he declared in a video during his workout in the House gym, “The only way we’re going to get any change in this town is through force.” Not by persuasion or legislation, but “through force,” as if that phrase means anything.

This amateurish narcissism is perhaps unsurprising, considering the ingrates in the Chaos Caucus. Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s fundraising entities—the Congress Leadership Fund and Take Back the House PAC—and the National Republican Congressional Committee spent a combined $2.8 million to elect Mr. Crane in 2022. He won by 8%. He has repaid Mr. McCarthy’s generosity by raising a mere $1,000 for the NRCC this cycle, and he supports removing the speaker if the House passes a bipartisan budget deal.

Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale was another GOP nay vote on the defense bill. He received $600,289 of support from the McCarthy PACs, mostly for his competitive 2020 race. This cycle he’s raised $5,000 for the NRCC.

North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop was another nay vote last week. The NRCC plowed $3.1 million into his 2019 special election and Mr. McCarthy’s PACs $2.6 million. He won by 2%. He’s raised nothing for the NRCC this cycle—he’s leaving Congress and is busy running for state attorney general.

Then there’s Mr. Gaetz, safe in his deep-red Florida district. He’s one of the GOP’s most prodigious fundraisers, collecting $6.7 million last cycle. But he raised zero for the NRCC last cycle and this. That won’t change. He’s likely hoarding cash for a 2026 gubernatorial run.

Mr. Gaetz and his fellow travelers forget that conservative progress in Congress requires team effort and that the perfect can’t be the enemy of the good—especially when Democrats control the Senate and White House.

Believing that less than two dozen GOP members can dictate to the rest of the government—particularly a hostile Senate and president—is fantasy. It’s also a perversion of the vision the Founders had of a national legislature where power was diffused, compromise essential and incremental change desired.

Because the Chaos Caucus won’t grow up, a shutdown is likely. That will hurt America—and Republicans. This sort of self-absorbed performance art comes with a political cost.
RayR Offline
#2 Posted: Wed, Sep 27 2023, 7:16 PM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
Karl Rove was never much of a conservative. He's a political hack, all he worries about is bargaining power and his whiteboard predictions.

Spend Spend Spend the stolen loot, print the rest, we've got 57,000 Ukranian public servant salaries to pay and a proxy war to fund and we've got to keep the military industrial complex fat and happy! Screw the US proletariat suckers, they'll continue to pay though the nose with taxes and inflation, gubmint shutdown or not. It took them only 3 months to rack up the last $1 Trillion of debt, a world record. Let's go for 30 days next! Keep the crazy train rolling faster and faster until it derails.

OUTRAGE! In US Government Shutdown, DC Will Continue To Pay Thousands Of UKRAINIAN Salaries!

Daniel McAdams

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/outrage-in-us-government-shutdown-dc-will-continue-to-pay-thousands-of-ukrainian-salaries/
MACS Offline
#3 Posted: Wed, Sep 27 2023, 7:18 PM EST
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,791
SHUT IT THE FU CK DOWN
Mr. Jones Offline
#4 Posted: Wed, Sep 27 2023, 8:43 PM EST
Joined: 06-12-2005
Posts: 19,429
Screw all those UKRAINIAN F U K S ....

NO PAY FOR THEM IF IT SHUTS DOWN....

F U K em'
Mr. Jones Offline
#5 Posted: Wed, Sep 27 2023, 9:05 PM EST
Joined: 06-12-2005
Posts: 19,429
Matt Gaetz is a cartoon character with a WIG...
RayR Offline
#6 Posted: Thu, Sep 28 2023, 9:37 AM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
Mr. Jones wrote:
Matt Gaetz is a cartoon character with a WIG...


So you are jealous of his hair?

Well...I was never tormented by such inessential covetousness.

Getting back down to earth, I do approve of his message in this case.


MIC DROP: Matt Gaetz Blasts Government Spending and Senator Bob Menendez in One Classic Line (VIDEO)

By Mike LaChance Sep. 27, 2023 9:20 pm

Quote:
Matt Gaetz had an amazing moment on the House floor this week, in which he slammed government spending and the alleged corruption of Senator Bob Menendez in one sentence.

This was a true mic drop moment.

RedState reports:

Quote:
Matt Gaetz Delivers the Line of All Time on Dems’ Dedication to Wasting Our Money

A government shutdown is looming with September 30 as the deadline.

Democrats are attacking the Republicans over it and doing their “extreme MAGA Republican” thing, hoping that the targeting sticks. Yes, how dare any of the Republicans not want to continue the rampant spending we’ve seen from the Democrats and the Biden team? That same spending helped fuel the inflation that everyone is suffering from now…

On Tuesday, the Senate advanced a continuing resolution to hold the government open through Nov. 17. They intend to vote later this week. The House passed some appropriations bills and expects to vote on a CR on Friday. But some were calling for doing more about spending including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

“We are devaluing American money so rapidly that in America today, you can’t even bribe Democrat Senators with cash alone! You need to bring gold bars to get the job done, just so that the bribes hold value!” Gaetz declared.


More...

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/mic-drop-matt-gaetz-blasts-government-spending-senator/
DrMaddVibe Offline
#7 Posted: Thu, Sep 28 2023, 10:52 AM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
I personally find it funny as hell that Gaetz (the guy you Robert, peddled was some sexual deviant with ZERO proof) is now wielding the power over the House Majority leader and the House to do it's one singular job. Deliver a budget. Not some DNC wishlist. Not some Chinese phone book legislation that nobody has the time to read, and lobbyists actually wrote. In this battle Matt is right. America is broke. It's time to start ending the insanity. The World Bank is NOT going to give us the same treatment as a German unification, or USSR dismantle towards their debts. Its time to pay the piano player if you want to dance to the music he's making.
ZRX1200 Offline
#8 Posted: Thu, Sep 28 2023, 6:47 PM EST
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,615
If you don’t fund my programs then you’re a racist, sexist, jomofobic Nazi.

Probably.

60% of the time it works all the time.
RayR Offline
#9 Posted: Fri, Sep 29 2023, 9:50 AM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
ZRX1200 wrote:
If you don’t find my programs then you’re a racist, sexist, jomofobic Nazi.

Probably.

60% of the time it works all the time.


I think that's what Democrats do when they are exercising bargaining power.
HockeyDad Offline
#10 Posted: Fri, Sep 29 2023, 3:50 PM EST
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,135
I wish someone would have told the members of Congress sooner that the government fiscal year ends at the end of September.

MACS Offline
#11 Posted: Fri, Sep 29 2023, 6:41 PM EST
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,791
HockeyDad wrote:
I wish someone would have told the members of Congress sooner that the government fiscal year ends at the end of September.



They were too busy taking breaks and vacations and stuff. Mellow
ZRX1200 Offline
#12 Posted: Fri, Sep 29 2023, 9:06 PM EST
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,615
Apologies for my spelling error
HockeyDad Offline
#13 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 8:50 AM EST
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,135
Why does the Federal government have a thing called “non-essential employee?”
deadeyedick Offline
#14 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 12:02 PM EST
Joined: 03-13-2003
Posts: 17,100
HockeyDad wrote:
Why does the Federal government have a thing called “non-essential employee?”


Because it covers to other 99%?
rfenst Offline
#15 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 2:06 PM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
A Government Shutdown for Dummies

A band of malcontents refuses to support funding bills while accomplishing nothing.


WSJ Editorial Board
The old saw is that faculty politics are so bitter because the stakes are so low. The same principle now seems to hold sway in the U.S. House of Representatives, which is on the verge of shutting down the U.S. government in order to achieve—nothing at all.

Funding for the government runs out at the end of the fiscal year at midnight Saturday, and a handful of House backbenchers have refused to vote for bills to keep it open. On Friday they blocked a bill that would have kept it open for a month while also reducing spending, fortifying border security, and creating a bipartisan fiscal commission.

This stopgap bill would have failed in the Senate in any case. And a Senate bill to keep the government open for 47 days with $12 billion for disaster relief and aid for Ukraine also can’t pass the House without Democratic votes. But the GOP malcontents promise to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy if he passes something with Democrats. Bluto and the Faber College boys in “Animal House” couldn’t have come up with a more stupid and futile political gesture as this looming shutdown.

The responsibility lies with the likes of Florida’s Matt Gaetz and Arizona’s Andy Biggs, who seem to want a shutdown as a show of political manhood. They certainly won’t end up cutting any spending, and a shutdown will probably result in more. Republicans control only the House, so a bipartisan agreement is inevitable to fund the government.

But this isn’t really about policy at all. If it were, House Republicans would have passed the 12 annual spending bills that they could then negotiate with the Senate. It’s their only chance to get something past President Biden’s veto pen. Yet until this week the same Republicans calling for “regular order” in appropriations and who slam continuing resolutions were blocking spending bills out of pique.

The real goal of the malcontents seems to be to topple Mr. McCarthy for personal spite. If Mr. McCarthy is forced to seek Democratic House votes, the Democratic price will be even more spending. Then the Gaetz Republicans will call for a motion to vacate the chair, and Mr. McCarthy could lose his speakership.

But then what? What suicidal imperative would cause anyone else to sign up to be Speaker? At this point it’s like volunteering to be the next wife of King Henry VIII. The result is unlikely to be different.

It’s a shame that a handful of holdouts are able to hold the entire GOP House hostage. Most House Republicans came to Washington to check Democratic spending and achieve what else may be possible in divided government. They put a ceiling on spending in the debt-ceiling deal this year, but they risk giving that back with the shutdown stunt.

It’s all so pointlessly stupid, with failure foreordained. Their constituents wanted conservative policies, but the Gaetz Republicans are playing personal games.
ZRX1200 Offline
#16 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 2:10 PM EST
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,615
^ see post 8

Preemptive cliff notes
rfenst Offline
#17 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 2:18 PM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
House Passes McCarthy’s Bill to Avoid a Shutdown, Sending it to the Senate

The measure omits aid for Ukraine, includes $16 billion in disaster relief


WSJ
WASHINGTON—The House passed a measure to extend government funding through mid-November after a coalition of Republicans and Democrats joined ranks to stave off a government shutdown, putting the matter squarely in the hands of the U.S. Senate.

The House voted 335-91 for the measure, which includes $16 billion in disaster relief but omits aid for Ukraine. That exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to clear the bill through the House, which considered the legislation under special procedures requiring a supermajority of votes.

Before the vote, House Republicans argued that the party had exhausted its options after dissident conservatives derailed an earlier plan, and said that the only choice now was to pass a bill extending funding at 2023’s $1.6 trillion annual rate through Nov. 17. That squares with major components of the approach being taken in the Senate, except that the Senate version includes an emergency $6 billion for Ukraine.

“I want to keep government open,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said after a closed-door conference meeting earlier Saturday, noting that the House still needs to pass eight of 12 spending bills. “I am asking Republicans and Democrats alike. Put your partisanship away. Focus on the American public.”

Some Democrats had worked to rally their members against the legislation, arguing against omitting aid for Ukraine and saying that Republicans had pulled a fast one by advancing a bill that they said would enable a pay raise for members of Congress. But Republicans moved to fix the cost-of-living increase matter, and also questioned why Democrats would be willing to shut down their own government in the name of supporting Ukraine.

The move to advance the legislation marked a major turnabout for McCarthy, who had spent months trying to appease a dissident flank that rejected his every offer. McCarthy advanced spending bills that at a net $1.471 trillion for fiscal 2024 were widely seen by Democrats as breaking his debt deal with President Biden. McCarthy then revised his approach, offering to advance bills with even steeper cuts while also saying that any stopgap measure must simultaneously provide for new restrictions on migrants. They rejected that as well.

“I have tried for eight months,” McCarthy told reporters. “It took me a long time to finally get the appropriations bills on the floor; they were delaying. I tried yesterday with the most conservative stopgap funding bill you could find,” he said. “I couldn’t get 218 Republicans.”
RayR Offline
#18 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 2:20 PM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
So I heard this biach of Biden's who checked the right boxes for the job of White House Budget Director (whatever that is, probably just another regime propaganda office) scaremongering about what effect and government shutdown and the "devastating cuts" that Republicans were offering would do, how women, children, grandma and grandpa were going to starve, 12,000 FBI agents, almost 1000 ATF agents, and more than 500 local police officers will lose their pay checks, how the economy will suffer and national security will be harmed and a whole bunch of other scary stuff.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/09/29/watch_live_omb_director_shalanda_young_joins_kjp_at_wh_briefing.html#!

I was totally unmoved. Any government that is so centralized, that does so many unconstitutional things, where so much power resides to loot, control and make such a large swath of masses dependent on its largess is way too big.
Mr. Jones Offline
#19 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 5:38 PM EST
Joined: 06-12-2005
Posts: 19,429
Matt Gaetz is a DEEEEKS with plastic hair and DIPPTY DO
MACS Offline
#20 Posted: Sat, Sep 30 2023, 7:36 PM EST
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,791
Ukraine doesn't need one more dime of hush money. They've laundered enough of our tax dollars for the big guy.
rfenst Offline
#21 Posted: Sun, Oct 1 2023, 9:55 AM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
MACS wrote:
Ukraine doesn't need one more dime of hush money. They've laundered enough of our tax dollars for the big guy.

That is b.s. Ukraine is a continuation of WWI and WWII-style land grabs, and the beginning of WWIII if Putin isn't stopped.
DrMaddVibe Offline
#22 Posted: Sun, Oct 1 2023, 10:11 AM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
rfenst wrote:
That is b.s. Ukraine is a continuation of WWI and WWII-style land grabs, and the beginning of WWIII if Putin isn't stopped.



Then you should liquidate all assets and donate it all to that Nazi DNC slush fund.
RayR Offline
#23 Posted: Sun, Oct 1 2023, 10:46 AM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
rfenst wrote:
That is b.s. Ukraine is a continuation of WWI and WWII-style land grabs, and the beginning of WWIII if Putin isn't stopped.


Hmmm...I thought it was a continuation of the cold war.
rfenst Offline
#24 Posted: Mon, Oct 2 2023, 12:58 PM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
Matt Gaetz: ‘Biden’s Favorite Republican’

A vote to oust Speaker McCarthy would empower Democrats.


WSJ Editorial Board
Kevin McCarthy chose the only option he had on Saturday to avoid a pointless government shutdown by seeking a bipartisan vote. He succeeded, but now the GOP Jacobins who blocked a Republican-only bill are plotting to oust Mr. McCarthy as House Speaker as soon as this week.

Mr. McCarthy had worked until the day before a shutdown deadline to pass a 45-day funding bill that included a spending reduction, money for border security, and a commission on the growing federal debt. It wouldn’t have passed the Senate, but it would at least have given the House leverage in conference. The GOP’s rejectionists defeated everything.

That left Mr. McCarthy no choice but to seek Democratic votes for a funding bill that included no GOP priorities. Democrats went along rather than be blamed for a shutdown, and good for them for voting aye despite the bill’s failure to include aid for Ukraine.

Mr. McCarthy knew he was putting his Speakership at risk, and on Sunday Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz vowed to introduce a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair. If it passes with a House majority, Mr. McCarthy will be toppled. He can only lose four Republicans.

The question for the Jacobins is what’s the plan if they oust Mr. McCarthy? Their latest justification is that they want someone they can trust in the job, but Mr. McCarthy has bent over backward to please them. It is never enough. Mr. Gaetz scores Mr. McCarthy for relying on Democrats for the funding bill, but Mr. Gaetz is counting on nearly all Democrats to join him to oust Mr. McCarthy.

Democrats could decide to provide some votes to save the Speaker, but they may prefer to see the GOP conference in chaos. Democrats will exact a price for pro-McCarthy votes if they choose that route—another example of how the Gaetz Republicans help the left despite their claims to be conservatives. That’s why GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez called Mr. Gaetz “Joe Biden’s favorite Republican” on Fox News on Sunday.

Mr. Gaetz, Matt Rosendale, Andy Biggs, Ralph Norman, Dan Bishop and pals have given no evidence that they understand the reality of divided government. It requires House GOP unity to have any leverage against a Democratic Senate and President, and even then there has to be compromise.

The rejectionists claim to be the only Republicans with principles, but their only apparent strategy—and only seeming goal—is to blow everything up.

Whoever wins the Speaker’s chair after Mr. McCarthy would be thrust into the job in the middle of a Congressional term amid a high-stakes budget negotiation and an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. He’d be subject to the same vacate-the-chair blackmail that has hung over Mr. McCarthy. What masochist wants that duty?

The Republicans who want to topple Mr. McCarthy are motivated by personal animus that has nothing to do with the public good. The vote to vacate the chair, if it comes to that, will test how self-destructive the nihilist Republicans can be.
8trackdisco Offline
#25 Posted: Mon, Oct 2 2023, 8:32 PM EST
Joined: 11-06-2004
Posts: 60,081
DrMaddVibe wrote:
I personally find it funny as hell that Gaetz (the guy you Robert, peddled was some sexual deviant with ZERO proof) is now wielding the power over the House Majority leader and the House to do it's one singular job. Deliver a budget. Not some DNC wishlist. Not some Chinese phone book legislation that nobody has the time to read, and lobbyists actually wrote. In this battle Matt is right. America is broke. It's time to start ending the insanity. The World Bank is NOT going to give us the same treatment as a German unification, or USSR dismantle towards their debts. Its time to pay the piano player if you want to dance to the music he's making.


I liked Gaetz better in True Blood. Or was it Buffy?
DrMaddVibe Offline
#26 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 7:36 AM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
8trackdisco wrote:
I liked Gaetz better in True Blood. Or was it Buffy?


True Blood....Bawhahahahaaa...totally got the reference!!!
rfenst Offline
#27 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 8:40 AM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
He is just one plain, ugly, vampire-looking mofo.
RayR Offline
#28 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 9:46 AM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
rfenst wrote:
He is just one plain, ugly, vampire-looking mofo.


So you are, like Jonesy, jealous of his hair?
rfenst Offline
#29 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 9:51 AM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
RayR wrote:
So you are, like Jonesy, jealous of his hair?

Take a good look at his bobble head, arched eye-brows and tall forehead with standing up hair and tell me he isn't scarry looking.
RayR Offline
#30 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 1:24 PM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
OK, that's enough of your jealousy.

This congressman actually knows math and is skooling the idiots.
Probably didn't do any good, because they are evil morons.

'The Idiot Class': David Schweikert Absolutely Hammers Congressional Colleagues Over Spending

https://youtu.be/sRi9rEpc4JI?si=CDM9VN5OiyG5pYVk
DrMaddVibe Offline
#31 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 4:11 PM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
Trash went to the curb!
Stogie1020 Offline
#32 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 4:15 PM EST
Joined: 12-19-2019
Posts: 5,344
15 rounds of votes to get in, one round to get out.
RobertHively Offline
#33 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 5:15 PM EST
Joined: 01-14-2015
Posts: 1,848
The stones on this guy....

https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1709307848319254863

His own party booing him. I love it. The warfare/welfare state brought to you by USA INC. will continue, but this was awesome.
DrMaddVibe Offline
#34 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 6:10 PM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
Guess who FA&FO??????


House ousts Kevin McCarthy as speaker in historic vote


The House of Representatives on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of ousting a speaker from office, nearly nine months after Kevin McCarthy won the powerful gavel in a dramatic 15-round floor fight.

The vote was 216-210, to topple the California Republican, who continued to insist to the bitter end that he would "never give up." After the vote, the office of the speaker of the House — and the second rung on the ladder of succession to the U.S. presidency — was declared vacant.

All 208 Democrats teamed up with just eight GOP rebels to vacate the speaker’s chair — the first time in U.S. history that lawmakers have formally voted to remove a sitting speaker in the middle of a term. An overwhelming number of Republicans, 210, voted to keep McCarthy in power, but it was not enough to stop the effort led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who for weeks has accused McCarthy of breaking promises to conservatives to cut spending.

“We heard Speaker McCarthy say that he wanted us to ‘Bring it on!’ So I guess we did,” Gaetz told reporters after the successful vote.

The historic vote threw the GOP-controlled House into chaos as lawmakers struggled to figure out what to do next. The House is now in recess while members huddle behind closed doors to plot a path forward. The session ended with another surprise: It was announced that Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., a top McCarthy ally, is now the speaker pro tempore, put on a secret list McCarthy provided to the clerk in January in the event of a vacancy.

After assuming the speaker's chair, where he'll serve in an interim capacity, McHenry slammed down the gavel in anger.

Before the vote, a parade of top McCarthy allies rose to speak in favor of keeping McCarthy. House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. called McCarthy a "happy warrior" who has a "uniquely American grit," while Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., praised him as "the greatest speaker in modern history."

“I recognize that my friends on the other side have a very complex set of partisan, personal and political calculations to make — and I certainly wouldn’t presume to give them any advice about that,” Rules Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., a top McCarthy ally who tried unsuccessfully to block Gaetz’s effort, warned on the floor before the vote.

“But I would say, ‘Think long and hard before you plunge us into chaos. Because that’s where we’re headed if we vacate the speakership.’”

Cole received big applause and a standing ovation from almost the entire GOP side of the chamber as he finished speaking.

Gaetz countered from the Democratic side of the aisle because Republicans had blocked him from the three GOP microphones on the floor, he said.

“Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word," Gaetz said, retorting Cole. "I don’t think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.”

For weeks, Gaetz had threatened to call a vote to expel McCarthy if he passed a short-term government funding bill relying on Democratic votes. When McCarthy did just that last weekend to avert a shutdown, Gaetz moved against him.

Under House rules, McCarthy had until Wednesday to take up the resolution that Gaetz, a conservative Florida Republican and Donald Trump loyalist, filed Monday night. But McCarthy and his allies moved to rip off the Band-Aid and quickly take on the so-called motion to vacate that has consumed the Capitol.

“I get politics. I understand where people are,” McCarthy told reporters. But he added: “I truly believe the institution of the House, at the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out that has 99% of their conference, that kept government open and paid the troops, I think we’re in a really bad place.”

After holding a vigorous debate behind closed doors Tuesday morning, House Democrats announced that they would band together and vote against McCarthy instead of rescuing him from the mutiny.

“We are not saving Kevin McCarthy,” said Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., as she left the meeting.

In the Democrats’ meeting, leadership played sound of McCarthy’s Sunday interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” where he said Democrats wanted to shut down the government in last week’s standoff, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., recounted. Many rank-and-file Democrats fumed at his remarks.

Democrats heard a range of views about what to do, but “there wasn’t anybody who came to the defense of Kevin McCarthy,” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

“I will vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. I will not be an enabler,” Connolly said. “It is absolutely against Democratic interests and the interests of the country, from my point of view, to allow him to persist in office.”

“He’s a MAGA extremist in his politics and is the antithesis of everything we hold dear,” he continued.

Along with Gaetz, seven other Republicans voted with all of the Democrats to depose McCarthy: former conservative Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs and Rep. Eli Crane, both of Arizona; Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee; Rep. Bob Good of Virginia; swing district Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina; and Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana.

Given how rarely the speakership has been declared vacant — the last time it happened was in 1910, when Speaker Joseph Cannon declared the chair vacant against himself — it’s unclear how this saga will play out now.

In 2015, then-Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., filed a motion to vacate resolution, but unlike this one, it was "non-privileged" and never came up for the vote. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, resigned weeks later, McCarthy ran for speaker and then dropped out amid a different conservative rebellion, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was elected speaker.

Speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol, Gaetz said that he could support any number of Republicans to succeed McCarthy as speaker. His list includes McCarthy's top lieutenant, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., GOP Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson, R-La., Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas; Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla.; even former Rep. Lee Zeldin, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York.

On Scalise, who is receiving treatment for a type of blood cancer, Gaetz said: "I want to hear from him. I'm not here to make a judgment on where Mr. Scalise stands with his rehabilitation and recovery."

"I would give him deference to be able to decide whether or not he'd like to put himself forward as a candidate," he added. "But he'd be the type of person that I could see myself supporting."

McCarthy's allies showed a range of emotions after his removal. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., wiped away tears with a tissue on the House floor, while others privately vented in the halls to reporters. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a McCarthy ally who has publicly clashed with Gaetz, urged the ousted speaker to run again.

"No one has come forward and no one has shown any interest in running for speaker," Greene said. "No one has the support in the conference like Kevin McCarthy does, so that's been my question the entire time: What's the plan? And there's not a plan."

https://www.aol.com/news/house-vote-today-rep-matt-150323732.html

Hey Matt...what about term limits, can America have some of that???

https://youtu.be/S94Bh3Qez9o?si=aEIvlslC1r5-h2GC

Please!!
8trackdisco Offline
#35 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 9:26 PM EST
Joined: 11-06-2004
Posts: 60,081
The Dems get the shut down avoided (win) and then they whack the guy who led it (another win).

How many more times are the Dems going to get over on the Republicans?

The Red Wave turned into premenopausal Red Spotting. Now 13 months away from the next general election, they burn their own structure to the ground. Political Arsonists.

The Extreme Right might be as unhinged as AOC and The Squad.

Clock is ticking, Dumbpublicans. Pull your heads out of you arses.
ZRX1200 Offline
#36 Posted: Tue, Oct 3 2023, 11:11 PM EST
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,615
Win?

More debt?

Ok…..
8trackdisco Offline
#37 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 7:04 AM EST
Joined: 11-06-2004
Posts: 60,081
ZRX1200 wrote:
Win?

More debt?

Ok…..


The deficit is a mess. As bad as it is, it only gets worse with a government shut down/start up again.

Plus, when the government shuts down, some employees are forced to work without pay. Do you agree with that?

Bet the landscape would change quickly if the moment the government shut down, the military quit working.
rfenst Offline
#38 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 7:11 AM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
8trackdisco wrote:
The Dems get the shut down avoided (win) and then the whack the guy who led it (another win). You think they should vote for their "hangman? I think they should let the R's fix this it since the D's can't help other than voting for a Republican."

How many more times are the Dems going to get over on the Republicans? Reps are not "going to get over on the Republicans." Republicans inflicted their own wounds and now the House i and is frozen.

The Red Wave turned into premenopausal Red Spotting. Now 13 months away from the next general election, they burn their own structure to the ground. Political Arsonists. Yep.

The Extreme Right might be as unhinged as AOC and The Squad. over on the Republicans." Absolutely.
Clock is ticking, Dumbpublicans. Pull your heads out of you arses.


Gotta love Mcarthy blaming this on the D's.
The MAGA 8 are = to the Squad in terms of where they fit on in their relative political spectrum. Both are extremist, in different ways.
RayR Offline
#39 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 9:17 AM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
rfenst wrote:
Gotta love Mcarthy blaming this on the D's.
The MAGA 8 are = to the Squad in terms of where they fit on in their relative political spectrum. Both are extremist, in different ways.


You know something, it used to be that if you were against war, welfare, debt, financialization, bureaucratic tyranny, cancel culture, and crony capitalist corruption, you were called a conservative or even a libertarian. Now you are called an extremist.

David Stockman is hopeful that this is the beginning of the end. I'm white-pilled hopeful too, but I'm not so sure America will be ready until it has sunk to its lowest point of progressive rot.

All Hail the Uniparty’s Demise

Bring It On, RFK Jr! (Part 1)

Quote:
It was a banner weekend. The hapless House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, triggered a veritable civil war within the GOP by surrendering to the bipartisan spenders’ caucus, while the scion of America’s most venerated political family stormed out of the Dems’ corruption-besotted encampment on the Potomac to continue his run for president as an independent candidate of the people.

So suddenly and thankfully, the malefic Washington Uniparty is on the ropes. Imperial Washington is under siege. America’s long nightmare of war, welfare, debt, financialization, bureaucratic tyranny, cancel culture and crony capitalist corruption may finally be coming to at least the beginning of the end.

More...

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/10/david-stockman/all-hail-the-unipartys-demise/
DrMaddVibe Offline
#40 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 10:44 AM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
rfenst wrote:
Gotta love Mcarthy blaming this on the D's.
The MAGA 8 are = to the Squad in terms of where they fit on in their relative political spectrum. Both are extremist, in different ways.



McCarthy forgot who he was and who he was sent to serve. He wasn't appointed to play games and cut side deals. That's EXACTLY what fired up Gaetz. America has a debt problem. It's not going to be solved by kicking the can down the road any more, that was never a sound solution. We're witnesses to a generation saddled by a yoke of debt they had no hand/voice in creating. That's evil. Now, we have an illegal invasion that is a drain on every system we have and it's exploited. Housing, Healthcare, Education, Financial Aid was always a problem but we just had close (that's without counting the ones that slipped through without being caught or entered into the system) to 10 million people cross our borders. We have a sitting President that is enabling this issue by not using the DOJ to adhere to legislation on our books instead of this turning a blind eye and a party that doesn't GAF about the rule of Law. Cutting a side deal for more Ukraine aid isn't part of of an appropriation bill. That was a sneaky backdoor ramming it under the guise of "we gotta git this done now" mantra that has put us in the situation we're in as a nation. Gaetz ran (and operates) as a conservative Republican. His constituents voted him in for exactly what he's doing. If it means gutting the office of Speaker of the House because he's unbound by rationality then so be it. McCarthy has made so many rumblings about the "thin ice" he was on and the tapdancing associated with it. He dared Gaetz to "Bring it on" and he FA&FO didn't he?

Comparing the 8 Republicans (I refuse to use the Biden term MAGA because according to his own words he's a "uniter" and all that does is alienate and label people that don't deserve it!) to The Squad. They are radical and believe themselves above decorum by staging events to get arrested, pay for criminal behavior, spit out nonfactual rhetoric because the media laps it up, and lied to get the offices they ran for and the crimes committed to get there. You call them extremist, I call them principled. Principled in fact to remove the Speaker of the House, which could hurt (but I'm willing to admit that it furthers) their political livelihood.

Potatoe pohtato, but the 8 did what they felt was in the best interest of the Nation. I cannot say the same for anything The Squad has ever done.
deadeyedick Offline
#41 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 10:54 AM EST
Joined: 03-13-2003
Posts: 17,100
Let's see what Gaetz will do now. My guess is the next speaker won't be any better and the problems will be the same or worse.
ZRX1200 Offline
#42 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 11:16 AM EST
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,615
That’s part of the problem.
DrMaddVibe Offline
#43 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 11:18 AM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,444
deadeyedick wrote:
Let's see what Gaetz will do now. My guess is the next speaker won't be any better and the problems will be the same or worse.


I only want whomever to serve America and stop the can kicking and giving taxpayer money to nations that are evil or proxy wars in continents we don't belong in!
RayR Offline
#44 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 12:04 PM EST
Joined: 07-20-2020
Posts: 8,893
Well, one positive event happened so far with the ouster of McCarthy. Those dirty squatters in hideaway offices, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer were ordered to vacate their office spaces by Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry. Of course, he did it out of spite because they voted to oust his friend McCarthy.
JGKAMIN Offline
#45 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 5:14 PM EST
Joined: 05-08-2011
Posts: 1,403
If the democrats really wanted to stick it to them they could’ve found a few votes against ousting McCarthy and leaving the Republicans stuck with him in the meantime.
8trackdisco Offline
#46 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 5:47 PM EST
Joined: 11-06-2004
Posts: 60,081
The Dems get the shut down avoided (win) and then the whack the guy who led it (another win). You think they should vote for their "hangman? I think they should let the R's fix this it since the D's can't help other than voting for a Republican."

On the surface, I understand your thinking. I see it as if the Dems help keep him in, the Red Children would continue to tear themselves apart. The more the Reds continiue to fight with each other, the more the quiet majority or moderate Americans shake their heads and walk away. The only thing they could do is make a new house rule allowing a speaker of the house be anyone they want. Maybe a tagteam of Mezit Oz and Herschel Walker. Hell, throw Hulk Hogan in there next.

How many more times are the Dems going to get over on the Republicans? Reps are not "going to get over on the Republicans." Republicans inflicted their own wounds and now the House i and is frozen.

They did do it to themselves- you are right. The Republicans have to think more like a hot chick. Act normal. Get people to compare them to Weekend at Bernies Biden, get into power, and then get all batchit crazy on their agenda and fast.

As a Conservative, I'm in favor of many of their ideas. Get control of the border. Through most of tem back. Forget Mexico, send them to southern Chile & Argentina- makes for a longer walk. If not freezing the budget, start by finding ways to cut back the 2.2 trillion per year it keeps expanding, cut all of the Covid handouts. Shut down the open drug scenes in the Blue Cities in the Blue States. Take the money we are wasting on all of the people here illegally and reinvest some of the money to help our homeless vets and put the rest toward reducing the debt.

NONE of this is going to happen if they keep acting the fools day in, day out, They keep this chit up, I may drop a real bomb and vote for democrats- for the first time in my life. Effing idiots.
rfenst Offline
#47 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 5:52 PM EST
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,335
JGKAMIN wrote:
If the democrats really wanted to stick it to them they could’ve found a few votes against ousting McCarthy and leaving the Republicans stuck with him in the meantime.

That would not have been a good move- we'd all be stuck with him and he'd again be in debt to too many factions. R's need a caretaker-type at this point...
ZRX1200 Offline
#48 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 6:43 PM EST
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,615
I think it’s best left in Luaren Boebert’s more than capable hands.
8trackdisco Offline
#49 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 7:23 PM EST
Joined: 11-06-2004
Posts: 60,081
ZRX1200 wrote:
I think it’s best left in Luaren Boebert’s more than capable hands.



BOOM!
JGKAMIN Offline
#50 Posted: Wed, Oct 4 2023, 7:28 PM EST
Joined: 05-08-2011
Posts: 1,403
rfenst wrote:
That would not have been a good move- we'd all be stuck with him and he'd again be in debt to too many factions. R's need a caretaker-type at this point...

Saw this rumor:

Quote:
Were you surprised to hear Kevin McCarthy let Pelosi and Hoyer keep their exclusive hideaway offices?

Well I’m hearing it was b/c he bad a secret deal with Pelosi where she guaranteed enough Democrat votes for KM if a Motion to Vacate ever came up

Pelosi backstabbed him and didn’t give KM the votes, so McHenry retaliated by forcing Pelosi and Hoyer out of those offices

This is what happens when you make deals with the devils!
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