Republicans Finally Elect a Speaker
McCarthy actually came within one vote of doing so
earlier on Friday evening, but enough of the ultra-rightists stood fast to
further delay a decision. Within minutes
of that defeat, however, after some last-minute wheeling and dealing right
there on the House floor, including a failed motion to adjourn and some apparently
successful attempts at getting Representatives-elect to switch votes, the House
proceeded to the fifteenth and final ballot early on Saturday morning, much to the relief of the
increasingly embarrassed Republican Party.
There are about 20 ultra-right-wingers who were at
the core of this rebellion although many Republicans who supported McCarthy all
along have similar antediluvian views as to the role of government (including
McCarthy himself) and many even join with them in denying the validity of the
2020 presidential election and in refusing to denounce the January 6, 2021
attack on the Capitol. All of them are a
very sorry lot if not a scary one.
To get their support, Speaker McCarthy had to
surrender many of the powers usually held by the Speaker to that extreme
right-wing group, sometimes referred to as the Freedom Caucus. This probably included, at a minimum, the power
to remove the Speaker from his position at anytime that he did not support
their positions. This means the Freedom
Caucus, a clear minority, would rule in the House of Representatives, the
‘people’s house.’ That is not the way it
ought to be in the democratic republic prescribed in the Constitution. McCarthy had to promise them key committee
appointments and chairpersonships, including the committee which makes House
rules. Each of these Freedom Caucus
votes had to be ‘bought’ at a high price by the incoming Speaker.
The only bright side to this is that the other
Republicans might have to cooperate with the Democrats to get any legislation
passed, who will of course insist on some input if not compromises as their
price. Of course, doing such a thing
would put them in the crosshairs of the Freedom Caucus’ attacks. They are good
at attacking, possibly their only skill.
Meanwhile, the normal day-to-day business of the
House of Representatives, including appropriating funds to run the government, its
committees’ hearings and meetings, and voting on measures requiring a House
vote, was delayed almost a week. They hadn’t even been able to swear it its 435
‘Representative-Elects,’ until the wee small hours of the night, or been able
to deal with the liar from Long Island. (The Republican majority will probably accept him, since they are very
experienced at accepting liars, sharing a party label with Donald Pinocchio, the
defeated former president, whom most of them worshipped. They will manage to
ignore where this poverty-stricken candidate, who couldn’t even pay his rent,
got $700,000 to lend to his campaign.)
The bottom line on this is that the Republicans,
as presently constituted, do not know how to govern, probably because they
believe government itself is an evil. Do you remember Grover Norquist who
preached drowning it in a bathtub at White House luncheons during George W.
Bush’s presidency? That’s the way these guys and gals still think today.
It should be noted that Nancy Pelosi’s majority
was as thin as today’s G.O.P. margin, but she did not have to deal with members
of her own party whose aim was the demolition of government programs, including
Social Security and Medicare, rather than legislating what was necessary for
them to operate.
I cannot avoid comparing the House’s dilemma in
choosing a
Speaker with the State of Israel’s selecting Bibi Netanyahu as its prime
minister. His party does not have a majority in their one-house legislature,
the Knesset, so he chooses as an ally a small, extreme, right-wing party to
create a majority, agreeing to support some of their radical, otherwise,
unpopular, agenda.
Well, the Freedom Caucus is not a separate party
from the rest of the Republicans, but they might just as well be, because they
demanded the adoption of much of their radical agenda in exchange for their
support for McCarthy, along with changes in the rules by which the House
operates.
When important legislation like debt limits, a
budget, health care, regulatory agencies, going to war, dealing with natural
disasters, climate change, etc. comes before the House, necessary to run the
government, the Freedom Caucus will be calling the shots for the same reason
because their votes will be needed for any Republican measures to pass. Thus
far, they have not shown any interest in running the government, or any hint of
competence in doing so … which makes the extremely wealthy Ayn Rand
libertarians very happy … because they want to live in a totally unregulated,
tax-free, practically ‘government-less’ society.
It also pleases Vladimir Putin because that
Freedom Caucus includes those who want to limit our aid to Ukraine.
Fortunately, our Constitution provides for a
separate election of our Head of State, and a separate Senate, something Israel’s parliamentary system lacks, so we are in better shape than they are. We have checks and balances that usually
work.
It is the Senate and the President that will stand
in opposition to this crazy Republican House of Representatives. Anything outlandish that they might pass will
not make it through the Democratic Senate. And It should be kept in mind that
if the ultimate legality of what is going on becomes an issue, expansion of the
Supreme Court, possible because of Democratic control of the presidency and the
Senate, could enter the equation.
Clearly, McCarthy will be totally beholden to
those who provided the votes to put him into the Speaker’s chair and could
remove him if they so wished at any time.
The incoming House of Representatives will accomplish nothing because of
this situation unless they taste of the forbidden fruit of cooperating with the
Democrats. Otherwise, they will make a lot of noise, and give Democrats a
thoroughly documented illustration of Republican incompetence when it comes to
governing.
There is only one solution to this problem. The TV broadcasts of the selection of a House
Speaker, showing Republicans, like some lower forms of life, figuratively
eating their own offspring, is reason enough for sane Americans to never, ever,
under any circumstances whatsoever, vote for a Republican. It’s like unknowingly swallowing poison.
And as for those Republicans who know better, the
ones who do not deny election results nor excuse the January 6, 2021
insurrection, it is time for them to leave the party, become ‘independents’ or
even consider becoming Democrats, or at least joining with them when votes are
cast on a measure before the House.
Historical Note:
During the 1850s, our political parties played a game of musical chairs
and the Whigs were left standing when the music stopped without any place to
sit down. The game continues today, and
when the music stops, it looks like the Republican Party, as we have known it
for years, will be left standing without any place to sit down.
Speaker McCarthy may nominally be identified as a
Republican but in reality, he has been reduced to a puppet of the Freedom
Caucus, even before he sits down in the Speaker’s chair.
JL
*
* * *
Near Tragedy on the Gridiron
There has been enough comment on TV and in the
press on the near-fatal injury suffered by Buffalo Bills safety, Damar Hamlin,
the other evening. Periodically,
Jackspotpourri has included comments on the violence present in NFL (and college)
football, so no additional posting is planned at this time. But take a minute to check out my posts on
10/18/22 and on 11/14/22 when I wrote that ‘sometimes this is closer to street
fighting than sports.’
Could it be that the American public gets a
vicarious thrill from seeing their favorite teams commit acts of violence that
they would never do themselves? Ancient
Rome experienced the same thing involving prisoners challenging lions in the
years preceding its decline.
JL
* *
* *
We Need a Solution to the Immigration Crisis ... and it ain't a wall!
In the blog’s 12/30/2022 posting, I promised to report further on the immigration crisis on the Southern border. Let’s start that with a quote from a recent column by the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell on this subject, in which she gently took President Biden to task for not doing all that he could.
“So what should the
administration and Congress be doing instead?
Among the more obvious steps: Send more resources to border communities, including to the many faith-based organizations assisting migrants. Beef up the asylum system so that cases can be adjudicated more efficiently and expeditiously.
Also, enable asylum seekers to apply for work permits much earlier – currently they must wait six months before they can even submit an application – so they can achieve the financial independence necessary to leave shelters.
Most important: Create more legal, safe, orderly pathways for people to come to the United States, both to seek protection from persecution and to pursue economic opportunities.
Americans often complain that immigrants should come here ‘the right way,’ but for many immigrants, showing up at the border unannounced and turning themselves in is the only legal pathway available. If given options to come here that don’t require paying gangs and crossing deserts, people would gladly take them – which would in turn alleviate stress at the border.
To its credit, the Biden administration has taken baby steps on the last recommendation.
Its Uniting for Ukraine program, for instance, has vetted and ‘paroled in’ more than 82,000 Ukrainians and their immediate relatives abroad, which has discouraged Ukrainians from showing up en masse at our southern border. A similar but much more restrictive program was created for Venezuelans, whose numbers are capped at 24,000; a parallel program is reportedly in the works for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians.
But again, these additional legal pathways can be created while still upholding the ability to apply for asylum at our borders. That’s what U.S. law requires – and what Biden has, repeatedly, promised to do.”
There’s a lot of meat in Ms. Rampell’s ideas, particularly programs to have immigration paperwork done abroad before the immigrant even leaves for the United States, a plan already being put into motion by President Biden, but difficult if not impossible in countries with which we do not have sufficiently close relationships.
Still
unmentioned is a numerical cap on total immigration. Back on 12/30/22, I suggested that their
number could not be unlimited. The
‘Golden Door’ cannot remain wide open forever.
The entire world might find a reason to try to come here, and really,
that is impossible. I think a solution
to this rests with the States bordering Mexico, and other areas from which
immigrants seek entry.
These are the places where the pressure of immigration is felt the most, and where real opposition to it is the strongest, probably because immigrants are most visible there. (I don’t mean the bogus opposition which claims immigrants bring crime and drugs with them. That is malarky spread by right-wing politicians.) Many of the immigrants already here are living their lives in a many-years-long suspended animation waiting for their asylum request to be adjudicated. The backlog is tremendous and grows each day.
I feel that the federal government should totally and generously foot the bill for expenses these States incur in hosting, even temporarily, immigrants. But this should be done in direct proportion to their number present in those States.
With dollars pouring into their treasuries, I suspect States would suddenly find room for immigrants and the ability to provide services for them, even temporarily if they were moving on elsewhere once their status was established. And this might apply to States other than those on the ‘southern border’ as well, those bordering on Canada and of course, on the open sea.
This might result in an artificial, but effective, cap on the number of immigrants accepted, which might kick in only when both a State’s space for immigrants and services that it might provide for them, and more importantly, the necessary federal financing, dwindles.
Can
you come up with a better idea? This one would have problems in the House, but it also might offer the opportunity for compromise there. Otherwise, Executive Orders from the President seem to be the best solution until 2024's elections change things..
 |
| Am I still supposed to lift my lamp besides the Golden Door? |
JL
*
* * *
Three Items of Interest:
·
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting
you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email
address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to
someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly
alerted.
You
can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com .
· Paintings: Recently added to the blog is a feature showing one of my paintings. (Besides writing, I also paint with acrylics for recreation.) Right now, it features one of my recent paintings, but it will be periodically revised to show earlier ones as well. You can find it off to the right on your desktop or tablet.
· Forwarding Postings: And of course, please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. The place to send them is: https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com
Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, has revised its forwarding
abilities. If you click on the envelope with the arrow at the conclusion
of every posting, (it looks like this:
), you will have the opportunity to list as
many email addresses as you wish, along with a comment from you, each of which
will receive a link to the full blog that you now are reading, with all of its
bells and whistles. This is a great advance from the very basic format Google
Blogspot originally provided when they forwarded something for you. It might take a few minutes longer for
your message to be transmitted but this method of forwarding offers the
advantage of being able to forward jackspotpourri to many addresses
simultaneously. Try it.
Either way will work, sending them the link above or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
No comments:
Post a Comment