OPINION | House Speaker McCarthy has few ways to avoid chaos in Congress

There are still ways to avoid legislative catastrophe in the next two years.

After arguing that this was a red line, Mr McCarthy agreed to reduce the number of MPs needed to force the ouster of the Speaker from five to one. He has agreed to allow the military to point a gun at his head and threaten to pull the trigger if he makes a move he doesn’t like. He also agreed to give to members of the Liberal caucuses and apparently agreed to allow a vote on the floor to set term limits for MPs.

It’s not yet clear what secret agreement McCarthy signed, but Bloomberg reports that some of the agreements under discussion would limit government-wide fiscal 2024 spending to 2022 levels. The House is free to debate the merits of defense spending, but this kind of brinkmanship budgeting is not the way to govern. This is reminiscent of the disastrous political stalemate of 2011, which led to painful sweeping budget cuts.

Dana Milbank: McCarthy just wrecked his house to save himself

Ironically, the Republican Party underperformed in the midterm elections due to the immense influence of the election-rejecting troublemakers who are now holding Congress hostage. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to party leaders, has agreed not to participate in the Republican primary in order to secure a Republican seat. But Club for Growth and other groups with a vested interest in dysfunction can spend an unlimited amount of money to uplift hardliners that have lived up to that promise. .

The anti-McCarthy holdout had a more rational purpose, expressing dissatisfaction with the concentration of power in the chairman’s office. Progressive Republicans and Democrats allied in his 1910 to remove Chairman Joseph G. Cannon (Illinois, Republican) as chairman of the Rules Committee and reduce the size of the committee from his five to his It reminds me of when I weakened that power by enlarging it to 15 people.

Its founders intended the House of Representatives to be a majority body that would more accurately reflect the changing tides of public opinion. A better understanding may result in fewer bills being passed, but the laws that move forward will be stronger.

Cartoons by Ann Telnaes: McCarthy finally achieves his greatest aspirations

Unfortunately, Mr. McCarthy also pledged to uphold the “Hastert Rule,” named after the infamous former chairman. This is anti-majorityism, and it often hinders progress on bills that have majority support in the House and nationally. Unless McCarthy is willing to rely on the Democratic vote, I fear the House will be a terrifying place for the next two years.

One solution lies not in Mr. McCarthy, but in the individual members who are fed up with the dysfunction. If you can get on the floor, more expulsion petitions can be used to force votes on bills that attract majority support. With the House so tightly divided, a small minority of moderate Republicans can work with Democrats to circumvent the Rules Committee and GOP leadership and bring bipartisan action to the floor. It may be necessary to raise the debt ceiling and protect the full confidence and credit of the United States. Or, in fact, it may be necessary to get something done against hard-line opposition motivated by disrupting rather than disrupting and thereby appearing on television. dominate.