Mike Johnson crashes and burns
It seems like forever ago, but the shutdown drama of just two short months ago is officially no more, with the Biden administration and Congress on track to renew a $1.59 trillion deal that would keep the GOP from getting any of the spending cuts they asked for.
It’s essentially the same bill that Kevin McCarthy agreed on with President Biden just before he was ousted from Congress. Despite the danger and recklessness we’re often warned about from the current GOP-led House, their own recklessness is their own undoing, as it’s whittled them down to a bare bones majority in the House, with the speakership largely being a job that nobody wants.
This isn’t to say that the current House doesn’t have a dangerous and reactionary agenda (they absolutely do), but the politics of the moment leave them largely powerless to get anything done that they want to do. Even though they could theoretically shut down the government, it would be political malpractice that would give them even less leverage than they have right now – as well as a flat-out gift to Democrats during one of the most prominent election years in decades. (The Ryan-led House was foolish enough to do it in 2018 and paid accordingly).
At every opportunity, Mike Johnson, an inept clown, proves why the GOP is unfit to control anything, while also failing at what should be a relatively easy task of placating his own base. This is why we need to vote them out at all levels of power on Nov 5, and why we need to get started with the special election in New York’s 3rd congressional district on Nov 13, by getting behind Democrat Tom Suozzi.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making