The Case for An Impeachment Inquiry: Kevin McCarthy’s Freedom Caucus Argument in the Light of a Democratic-Congressional Budget Crisis

Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry this week to show those on the far right of his conference. He estimated it could help pay for the government and avoid a shutdown at the end of the month.

The impeachment inquiry is not changing House Freedom Caucus’ spending calculations, they insisted hours after his Tuesday announcement.

“Those are two separate conversations and two separate actions by Congress,” said Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, a Freedom Caucus member. There is no leverage for an impeachment process. And if anyone tries to use that to leverage votes for a CR There will be hell to pay when there is a short-term spending bill.

With a razor-thin majority, McCarthy can’t afford to lose fiscal conservatives, unless he courts Democratic votes — a move that would further enrage the group already threatening his job.

Hard-line Republicans have been saying for the week that McCarthy’s political fate is related to the spending fight. The dynamic has ground the House to a standstill, just weeks before the deadline to fund the government or shut down.

When McCarthy was elected speaker, members of the Freedom Caucus said they wanted overall spending to return to fiscal year 2022 levels. Those levels are lower than what McCarthy and President Biden agreed to during debt ceiling negotiations this spring.

Rep. Matt Gaetz and the House Appropriate Resolution of the Stopgap Bill: Why Congress isn’t Going to Pass it

They will oppose any stopgap bill that doesn’t include additional border security funding, in addition to changes to Pentagon policies and measures to address political bias in the Justice Department.

The member of the Freedom Caucus, Dan Bishop, said he will not support moving ahead with any of the appropriations bills until he learns the true spending levels for all of them.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz took to the floor Tuesday to warn that McCarthy was “out of compliance” with the deal he cut in January to be elected speaker. Gaetz cited votes on all 12 spending bills as one of the items McCarthy hasn’t delivered on. But it was conservatives who forced the speaker to table one of those bills in July, when their demands made it clear leaders didn’t have the votes to pass the bill.

Bob Good told reporters that he wants the speaker to outline in writing how the spending puzzle fits together. He said the House can remain in session for the rest of the month as long as they pass bills at conservative levels.

House Rules Committee Chair Rep. Tom Cole disagreed that there wouldn’t be any impact from a shutdown, saying “it is a big deal and the American people will notice, and the problem is if you stumble into it whatever reason triggered it won’t be what you’re talking about, you’ll be talking about the shutdown.”

Arkansas GOP Rep. Steve Womack noted that “the margins are thin” with several House Republicans out this week, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is undergoing cancer treatment. He called that a difficult spot to keep the Republican caucus together.

Womack said moving some bills through the House “also sends a signal to the Senate that we’re serious about what we’re doing and we have some solutions that they need to listen to.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a close ally of McCarthy who was a key negotiator during debt ceiling talks, was more optimistic about the chance that Republicans could get on the same page.

Rep. Cole says the government is shut down, and if you can’t do that, what’s next? “If it takes a fight, you’re gonna have a gun to your head”

Cole warned that if the government is shut down, it will hurt yourself, you’re not going to advance your objective, and that is the political equivalent of a gun to your head.

The only thing that is going to be enacted into law is what we negotiate as a result of the increase in the debt ceiling. “We negotiated tough caps that we have to adhere to. Where do we end up if some senators want to spend more and some Republicans want to spend less than the caps? The caps have something on them. I think that’s a reasonable outcome of this thing.”

The speaker pitched combining three bills that fund security-related programs and emergency aid for storms and fires that have ravaged a number of states.

At a Thursday morning meeting of House GOP members, McCarthy dared his critics to stop talking about ousting him from his job and start a formal process of doing it, according to Rep.

The speaker’s job can be stripped from him or her if he or shenywayanyday a motion to vacate. A speaker’s job is at stake if a motion to vacay is made. It is the same tool used by far-right members that eventually led Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to step down and resign from Congress in 2015.

The speaker downplayed the exchange, saying that threats don’t matter, and that sometimes people do things because of personal things. McCarthy was elected speaker after having to go through 15 rounds of voting, which was different than what had been done before him.

He knew members would try to use leverage to get what they wanted, and said “you know what, if it takes a fight I’ll have a fight.” He ignored a question on whether he had the votes to defeat any effort to oust him.

The conservatives objected to the failure of the defense spending. It has become a problem at a time when lawmakers need to move fast to avoid a shutdown.

Lawmakers are heading home for the weekend without any vote on any spending bill or short term funding bill this week, and no clear plan for how to fund the government past September 29, all while the Senate is moving a package of three spending bills through the chamber with significant bipartisan support.

The Senate voted 91-7 to approve a package of three spending bills just after the fraught GOP meeting in the House.

The Freedom Caucus and the Decline of the Defense Budget: Comments on two Democratic ally victories in the Green-Green-Blue-Bottom Legislature

North Carolina GOP Rep. Richard Hudson, a top ally of McCarthy’s, pushed back on the idea a shutdown was inevitable, saying, “I don’t agree that’s it’s likely, we’ve still got a week.”

“I wouldn’t vote to move forward with any of the appropriations bills until I was sure that the numbers were satisfactory,” said Dan Bishop, leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus. A defense bill that funds the Pentagon’s policies on diversity, equality and inclusion will not be voted on by other members of the Freedom Caucus. A bill that would include money for the war in Ukraine is not supported by a member of the conference. Marjorie Taylor Green, an ally of McCarthy, said she would not support a bill that included money for the war.

The Freedom Caucus also opposes a short-term stopgap measure to keep the government open — known as a continuing resolution — unless that measure includes key conservative demands.

It’s not clear the conference can coalesce around any plan to avert a shutdown, and the clock is ticking. Mast and McCarthy had similar problems trying to function under threats from within their own party.

“Stop holding up everybody’s work,” Mast said. You’re going to attempt to get somebody to walk in if you hold it over people’s heads.