If Congress’ end-of-December infighting is any indication, next year will be far from clear sailing for either party. Among Republicans, virtually no one is happy. And while the Democrats managed to cap their year with the third defeat in a row for the far-left Squad, it’s unclear just how far they can run (or want to run) from their own base.
First, the Grand Old Party. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) has a seriously bad habit of making promises he can’t seem to keep, and the funding fight is no exception.
If the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present are to be believed, Christmas Future promises a painful visit.
Johnson promised an open process led by committee chairs that shunned the traditional Christmas omnibus spending package and gave members at least 72 hours to read a bill before a vote. The process has been opaque; committee chairmen have been excluded; the package taking shape looks a lot like a little omnibus; and given the Friday midnight deadline, it’s barely skating in under those 72 hours of reading time — and then the Senate gets to take a stab. It’ll likely be a long weekend on Capitol Hill.
Conservatives like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) are mad about the process, the spending, the ethanol subsidies, and the handouts to Democrats. More mainline Republicans like Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) are angry that neither they nor their priorities seem to be included in negotiations. And the Trump transition team is less than pleased that the Trump administration gets to repeat the whole shebang in March when the funding runs out (and right when the Trump team is hoping to build momentum).
That last bit might be a blessing in disguise, however. Republicans have just weeks to wait until they control the House, Senate, and White House. So while they get to battle it out again, it will be harder for the uniparty to tie President-elect Donald Trump’s hands on Ukraine funding and other places he’d prefer to maintain maneuverability.
And Johnson can expect to give a pound of flesh for all his letdowns. Don’t expect him to lose his job, though. Neither Trump’s nor Johnson’s colleagues have the stomach for a drawn-out leadership fight with the margins the House still has.
Conservatives will have the ability to demand chairmanships in exchange for their votes, but what about those people like Smith who already have chairmanships? All Johnson has to offer them is his word, and that ain’t worth much at the moment. What will he have to do to mollify them?
And speaking of squabbles, Democrats have their own dirty laundry. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) lost her bid to head the House Oversight Committee Democrats in the next Congress to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). While AOC has only been in Congress six years, her photogenic radicalism has made her one of its biggest stars — and a major draw for the Democratic base.
Party leaders spent years cowering and kneeling in the hard left’s shadow after they successfully cashed George Floyd’s death in for sweeping moral authority, but no more. This past year saw defeat after defeat for the Squad, with both Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) going down in contentious primaries. And now this.
While Connolly is a workhorse and a serious investigator, he’s also more than twice AOC’s age and is battling esophagus cancer — making her rejection by 131 Democrats that much starker.
Next year is far from written, but if the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present are to be believed, Christmas Future promises a painful visit.
Blaze News: ‘Dark and under cover’: Congress fails to finalize funding bill just days from the deadline
Blaze News: Democrat rep defeats AOC for top role on key committee
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