Tag Archives: Kevin McCarthy

economic news

Who’s playing politics?

How in this good ol’ world can Republicans say with a straight face that Democrats are guilty of “playing politics” when the GOP has turned the politics-playing game into an art form.

Consider the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling.

A Republican president ran up 20% of the total national debt during his single term in office. Congressional Republicans were silent when Donald Trump managed that feat. The debt happens to be on the books already as money is already spent. Meanwhile, the U.S. Constitution calls for the “full faith and credit” to be free of the political games now being played.

Now that we have a Democrat in the White House, congressional Republicans want to hold the national debt as a weapon to use against Democrats. What the hell?

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met today to discuss this debt ceiling matter. McCarthy came out of that meeting and suggested the two men made progress in settling their disagreements.

I get that we need to control government spending. I’m fine with that as a matter of principle. However, the debt ceiling must be lifted to allow this nation to maintain its full faith and credit. Bringing the debt ceiling crashing down would bring financial ruin. That is the truth. How about raising the debt ceiling, which is always done, and then talk about looking for greater fiscal responsibility?

Refusing to raise the debt ceiling arguably is the most brazen act of political gamesmanship imaginable. Thus, when the GOP accuses Democrats of playing politics, they are projecting their own sin on their opponents.

It is beyond shameful.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP changes formula for fitness

What am I missing as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy doles out committee assignments for the 118th Congress?

Republican House members lost committee seats in the previous Congress for a number of legitimate reasons. Marjorie Taylor Greene likened COVID-19 mask mandates to the Holocaust; Paul Gosar thought it was funny to depict the murder of a Democratic colleague. Now the new speaker has decided to return them to key committee assignments. Oh, and then he seats a pathological liar, George Santos, on two key committees while he is under investigation by the House ethics panel for possible violations of House rules.

Then the speaker boots Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee for — get this! — impeaching Donald J. Trump.

How can one set of hideous transgressions be reversed while dropping the hammer on Democrats simply for doing their constitutional duty?

I don’t get it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Speaker’s deal may prove costly … to him!

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with the GOP “devils” well might come back to take a huge chunk from his backside.

Consider what he has done. He has allowed some of the most radical members of his party’s caucus to take seats on key committees assigned to protect our nation’s secrets. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar will serve on the House Oversight Committee …sheesh! Then we see that Rep. Lauren Boebert, another QAnon princess, will gain a key committee assignment after voting against McCarthy’s bid to become speaker.

Let’s not forget that McCarthy also has seated Rep. George “Serial Liar” Santos on committees, too … never mind that he lied to the voters in New York who elected him about every aspect of his personal and professional life.

Get this, too: Many of these MAGA cultists insisted on power to remove the speaker at the behest of just a single House member. What will happen when he pisses one of them off enough to call for his removal?

All of this seems to provide demonstrable evidence that McCarthy very well might be the least intelligent individual ever to serve in an office that is second in succession to the presidency.

God help us!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Come clean, Mr. Speaker

The White House has made a perfectly reasonable, rational and realistic demand of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Come clean, Mr. Speaker, on the deals you struck with House conservatives to persuade them to vote you into the speaker’s office.

That’s what the White House — and many of us out here — want to know. What did McCarthy give away to the Freedom Caucus, the MAGA cabal?

They had formed a clique of “Never Kevin” House members. Then they became supporters, hugging his neck after he won the speakership after 15 votes among House members. How did they transform from Never Kevin voters to supporters?

The Hill reports: Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates warned that the extent of the deals between McCarthy and the roughly 20 Republicans who initially opposed his bid for Speaker are not fully known, but that they could wreak havoc on the economy and key government programs.

Yeah, no kiddin’.

White House calls on McCarthy to publicize details of deals with conservatives | The Hill

So, come clean, Mr. Speaker. What precisely did you give away to obtain that gavel? Hmm? C’mon! Tell us!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Vengeance could be costly

Congressional Republicans’ vengeance agenda as the new Congress gets underway well could prove seriously damaging to any hope of the GOP maintaining control of the legislative branch of the U.S. government.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — who will be remembered forever as the man who needed 15 ballots to eke out a victory for the speakership — takes office as the weakest and most feckless speaker in recent House history.

So … what does he do? He vows to kick Democrats off of key committees merely because of their vocal opposition to Donald J. Trump during his two impeachments and subsequent Senate trials.

Then he says he might consider “expunging” the record of Trump’s impeachment.

Then the House has announced a plan to form a committee that will investigate Congress’s earlier investigations of conservatives who ran afoul of the rules and possibly broke the law.

Oh, and now GOP members want to investigate whether the classified documents found at a D.C. think tank and at President Biden’s home violated the same rules that Donald Trump has all but admitted breaking when he spirited highly classified documents from the White House to his Florida mansion.

Then the House will consider whether to impeach President Biden, the homeland security secretary, the attorney general … along with finding dirt to fling at Dr. Anthony Fauci.

If there was a compelling message that voters delivered in the 2022 midterm election, it is that they want Congress to govern. They want positive results coming from Capitol Hill.

If Congress doesn’t deliver what voters want and instead gets hung up on ways to stick it to Democrats and to Joe Biden, well … the 2024 election could mean the GOP kisses its newfound power goodbye.

That damn karma is a real bitch … you know?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Mr. Speaker

Kevin McCarthy, the newly installed speaker of the U.S. House, no doubt is feeling smug this morning as he begins his first week in Congress’s most powerful political office.

I mean, the Republican congressman was able to take the gavel after 15 votes among his colleagues in the House. He set a record for the number of tries he needed to cross the finish line. Is this the beginning of a new era in Congress? I doubt it … seriously!

Therefore, I feel compelled to warn the speaker against getting too far ahead of himself as he seeks to organize the legislative chamber. He gave away a lot — too much, in my view — to the right-wing radical wing of the Republican Party House conference to attain the office he coveted.

The most startling concession allows just one House member to call for a vote to remove the speaker. What, then, could happen if McCarthy pisses off one of the House members who held out until the last minute to approve his nomination? Could they call for a vote within the House to boot him?

Moreover, it should be obvious to Speaker McCarthy that voters sent a clear message to Congress in the November 2022 midterm election: They want Congress to govern, not obstruct; voters aren’t interested in these “investigations” into Hunter Biden’s laptop. Maybe most GOPers have such an interest, but they don’t comprise the bulk of the voting population.

I couldn’t help but think of the classic definition of insanity as McCarthy kept bringing the speakership up for a vote time and again. It is that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

To be fair, Speaker McCarthy eventually got the “different result” he sought … but it was on the 15th try.

Wow! What a sh** show!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Can they work together?

Hakeen Jefferies says he and Kevin McCarthy can work together when it matters. Count me as a skeptic … for the time being at least.

Jefferies is the newly minted U.S. House Democratic leader is the equally newly minted speaker of the House. Oh … McCarthy also is a Republican who had to fight through 15 floor-vote ballots before eking out enough support to get the speaker’s gavel.

Jefferies says he and McCarthy get along just fine, that they can “agree to disagree without being disagreeable.” Indeed, McCarthy said some pretty angry things about former speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in turn fired some nastiness at McCarthy.

Jefferies and McCarthy need to work together to craft legislation that President Biden can agree to sign into law. I fear that the task might be hampered by the MAGA crowd within the GOP House caucus that is intent on impeaching everyone who carries the title of Democrat.

Well, I will hold out a sliver of hope that the party leaders can forge a working relationship that puts country ahead of partisan concerns.

Many of us are watching you, gentleman.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Speaker McCarthy? Let’s get busy!

I find it strange and a bit discomfiting to refer to Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House, but sure enough, he’s got the title and the gavel.

Now comes the test to see if he has the skill to manage a sharply divided legislative chamber that required 15 floor votes to decide on whether McCarthy should succeed one of the greater speakers in U.S. history, Nancy Pelosi.

The only thing these two individuals have in common is that they represent California in the House. Pelosi serves the people of San Francisco, while McCarthy hails from Bakersfield.

Furthermore, I am trying to imagine — and I can’t get close to realizing it — Pelosi getting herself trapped in the embarrassing spectacle that unfolded as McCarthy battled the MAGA wing of his party in trying to secure enough votes to become speaker.

I would not have occurred during Pelosi’s two runs as speaker.

Yet here we are. Speaker McCarthy has suffered heavy injury to his reputation by giving away damn near the whole power structure to the MAGA cult cabal in the House.Ā  Hey, didn’t Pelosi once scold the Democrats’ progressive caucus by ordering its members to back off and let her run the House? Yep. She did!

McCarthy squeaked — or perhaps slithered — his way into the speaker’s chair by the narrowest margin possible. He is de-fanged, de-clawed and de-balledĀ as he seeks to get the House apparatus lined up.

The MAGA clowns will take seats on key committees. Good luck with that … Mr. Speaker.

It’s a new day in Congress. May the forces of good government eclipse the morons who wrangled all those concessions from the gutless coward who now serves as speaker of the House.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Democracy is damn ugly

Winston Churchill had it exactly right when he described democracy as the most awkward form government, but better than any other form of governance ever created.

He said in a 1947 speech before the British House of Commons: Indeed, it has been saidĀ that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

The world witnessed an example of it with the election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House early today.

Ugghh! I couldn’t stand watching it. I am not happy with the result, either … but I’ll accept that it’s what we have. So, let’s move forward and hope the House and Senate can get something done for you and me.

To be candid, I don’t expect much from the House. McCarthy gave away a lot of the real power the speaker is supposed to have. He surrendered it to the right-wing, MAGA cabal within the GOP House conference.

The cultists hate McCarthy for reasons I don’t quite grasp. He’s one of ’em, for criminy sakes! Anyone who would be critical of the treasonous moron who incited the 1/6 insurrection and then venture to his glitzy estate for a photo op cannot be trusted? Give me a break!

Well, we have a House speaker. At least the lower chamber can start its work. That’s some semblance of progress … even though it developed from the ugliest start in the history of the republic.

Oh, and thanks for the wisdom, Mr. British Prime Minister. You were so correct as always.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

How can he govern?

For the life of me I am trying to grasp how in the name of good government Kevin McCarthy can hope to function as speaker of the House when he keeps capitulating to the right-wing nut job caucus of the Republican congressional conference.

I mean, holy yellow-belly coward, the dude is making deal after deal with MAGA lovers who don’t trust him as far as they can throw him.

And he still can’t get enough votes to be selected as House speaker!

He’s gone through 13 failed attempts at garnering the needed 218 votes to become speaker. Each time it goes to the floor for a vote he gives something else away.

He’s promised to put the election deniers on key committees, he has agreed to let a single House member call for a vote to remove the speaker, he is promising to open up investigations into every Democrat within spitting distance of Capitol Hill.

If he is able to be elected speaker, McCarthy is likely to learn in short order — as in immediately — that the prize he has coveted for years ain’t worth the effort.

The late Texan, former VP John Nance Garner, once said the vice presidency “ain’t worth a bucket of warm piss.” If he is able to seize the gavel as House speaker — and that remains an open question — I intend to wait for a similar description from McCarthy about the office he fought like hell to inherit.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com