To nobody’s shock, Home Republicans can’t appear to get their priorities in line.
Whereas some far-right Republicans are directing their consideration to additional punishing Democratic Rep. Al Inexperienced of Texas—who was ejected from the chamber after dissenting throughout President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress—the GOP caucus ought to actually flip its consideration towards stopping a federal authorities shutdown.
However go away it to the Home Freedom Caucus to be too slowed down with scheming methods to point out their fealty to Trump to work on averting a shutdown, which may furlough 1000’s of federal staff.
Each chambers of Congress solely have till midnight Friday to move a funding invoice, and Home Republicans solely launched their 99-page measure to avert a shutdown this previous Saturday. The invoice, which might fund federal businesses by means of Sept. 30, would enhance protection spending and lower non-defense discretionary spending.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson will deliver the invoice to the ground for a vote this week, seemingly on Tuesday, however we don’t know whether or not it is going to move. Trump is publicly pressuring Republicans into voting for it, however Democrats will seemingly oppose it.
A minimum of one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has already mentioned he’d oppose the invoice. And given the Republican’s razor-thin majority within the chamber, Johnson can’t afford to lose one other GOP vote. Given this, one may assume that Republicans can be working to whip up votes for the invoice, however a number of the extra hardline caucus members produce other priorities.
Rep. Al Inexperienced, Democrat of Texas, dissents throughout President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025.
Removing from committee assignments is normally a punishment reserved for the worst of the worst. In 2021, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has a status for sharing baseless conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism, was stripped of her committee assignments after the invention of her previous statements endorsing the execution of Democrats, amongst different heinous issues.
Later that 12 months, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who made appearances at white nationalist occasions, additionally misplaced his assignments after he shared a violent animated video depicting him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Compared, this type of punishment is commonly used as petty retribution towards Democrats. For instance, Rep. Eric Swalwell and then-Rep. Adam Schiff, each of California, had been booted from the Home Intelligence Committee in 2023 as punishment for voting to eject Greene and Gosar from their committees and for his or her roles within the impeachment of Trump.
Inexperienced’s worst offense is waving his cane within the air and declaring that Trump had “no mandate” to chop Medicaid, which he and different Republicans are pursuing to assist pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
That’s not a lot totally different—or worse—than what occurred in 2022 when Greene and fellow Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado relentlessly heckled former President Joe Biden throughout his State of the Union tackle.
Whereas Republicans definitely have a status for pettiness, there’s a way that this new measure towards Inexperienced received’t go wherever. Johnson, for his half, reportedly thinks “that this measure should go away.”
That’s most likely as a result of he’s extra centered on appeasing Trump and avoiding a shutdown. It’d be a foul search for Johnson, Trump, and the GOP at giant if the federal government shut down lower than two months into his second time period.
The decision towards Inexperienced hasn’t formally been filed, however Republicans already really feel like they received since they efficiently censured him final week with the assistance of some traitorous Democrats.
In any sense, the transfer to additional punish Inexperienced and move a invoice by means of the chamber at breakneck pace reveals how far Republicans will go to make sure that Expensive Chief will get what he desires.
But when something, these strikes don’t signify the GOP’s fealty to Trump a lot as how actually terrified they’re of him.
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