With a political spectacle, the Republican members of Congress are making it clear that they will make life difficult for the Biden government in the future. Now the signs in Washington point to new austerity – that’s not a mistake.
Finally there: Republican Kevin McCarthy is the newly elected speaker in the House of Representatives – but at what price?
With a smile beaming with relief, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy swung the Speaker’s gavel in the House of Representatives for the first time after midnight. His lifelong dream has finally come true, he is at the peak of his political career. At the time, he didn’t notice that he had to go through a spectacle of 15 election rounds, the likes of which the United States had not seen since before the Revolutionary War. Not even the fact that he had to give up a lot of the power that a speaker can normally hope for in the last few meters to the goal.
This much is clear after this drama: McCarthy will be a weak speaker, dependent on the goodwill of more than just a group of 20 rebellious MPs who have only allowed their resistance to be bought off with extensive promises and gains in power. The tough election was a very clear warning shot: McCarthy is in the hands of even the smallest splinter groups in his faction and will hardly be able to put any pressure on them before important votes.
The rebels behave consistently
Much criticism has been leveled at the rebels both within and outside the party this week. But they were not intimidated by this. With their hard work, they demonstrated not only personal power-political goals but also a central concern that many voters in their party are calling for: They are radically opposed to further growth in spending in the state.
The outcome of the midterm elections in November, which snatched the ruling Democrats a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, can certainly be interpreted as the citizens’ desire to throw some screws into the surprisingly well-oiled wheels of the democratically led government. In the last two years, this has only had a wafer-thin majority in Congress, but has nevertheless been able to pass massive spending laws and has thus contributed significantly to high inflation in the USA.
The Republicans in Congress have by no means done everything to complicate this development. On the contrary, two days before Christmas, 18 Republican senators, led by their minority leader Mitch McConnell, approved another $1.7 trillion spending bill that would allow the Washington administration to spend 8 percent more money by September 2023 compared to the previous year and the Mountain of debt continues to grow.
Against opaque maneuvers in Washington
The legislative package of more than 4,000 pages had been negotiated in backrooms of power just a few days beforehand and rushed through Congress. There was hardly any time for reading and debating the monster law, many costly special interests of individual politicians simply slipped through. The legitimate demand to leave the adoption to the newly elected Congress in January was ignored – knowing full well that this package would not have stood a chance.
Republicans have outmaneuvered Republicans in this way to push through another huge increase in government spending. Now the newly minted Speaker McCarthy had to promise the rebels that future spending would be frozen at the 2022 level – reversing the increase from this year. In addition, the rebels get more influence in shaping the rules in the house, which could potentially make such opaque legislative packages more difficult.
The fact that the rebels are taking rigorous action against a Congress that is constantly increasing government spending and distributing it in an opaque manner not only serves the interests of many taxpayers. It also follows a distrust of an ever-growing centralization of power in Washington, deeply rooted in American state tradition. Both have many supporters, especially in the Republican following.
Is consistent blocking enough for a government mandate?
The signs are very clear: The White House will have to prepare for two years of blockades in Congress. The fact that this does not have to mean a catastrophe for the country and the economy is demonstrated not least by the brilliant start to the new year on the American stock exchanges, which were not impressed by the drama in Congress. Nevertheless, the leadership of the Republican Party will have to ask itself: is the consistent blocking of democratic politics in Washington enough to get an electoral mandate for their own government in 2024? Shouldn’t the party also be able to distinguish itself as a shaping force in federal politics? The latter is likely to be difficult for her after this start to the new year.