The Dangerous Concessions Kevin McCarthy Made to Become House Speaker

The House of Representatives votes later Monday on a new package of operating rules that includes chilling changes that could seriously damage the United States.

Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the House after 15 hellish votes, during which he made concession after concession to the farthest-right members of the chamber. The rules package for 2023 looks very different because of that.

Some moderate Republicans have already said they plan to oppose the package, such as Representative Tony Gonzales, who said he is against proposed potential defense budget cuts. Representative Nancy Mace expressed concerns over the lack of information about the “backroom deals” McCarthy made to win.

Here’s a look at some of the most dangerous proposals:

1. Motion to “vacate the chair”

Not only did McCarthy give all his dignity to his most extreme colleagues, he also apparently ceded all his actual power to them too. The California Republican agreed to restore the motion to vacate, which would allow any single member of the House to call for a vote to remove him.

Considering at one point 21 Republicans had blocked his bid for the speaker’s gavel, McCarthy will have the threat of removal hanging over his head throughout his entire tenure as speaker. He will spend his speakership rushing to please the people who finally agreed to put him there, rather than governing. And if he is removed, the House could be stuck in an endless loop of speaker votes, preventing the chamber from accomplishing anything.

2. Rules Committee assignments for the Freedom Caucus

McCarthy also agreed to give three seats on the powerful House Rules Committee to the Freedom Caucus, the far-right coalition. The House Rules Committee has a lot of influence over what bills and amendments make it to the floor. Freedom Caucus members could now block or stall actually useful legislation from ever reaching a vote. Politico called this “the single most significant surrender of leadership power that we’ve seen in decades.”

3. Slashed spending

The new rules will cap the debt ceiling, or the maximum amount of money the U.S. can borrow, to its level from two years ago. If the U.S. government reaches its soon-to-be-lower borrowing limit, it could default on its debt or fail to make a repayment. If that happens, already high prices and inflation could skyrocket, sending the U.S. into a recession.

Defaulting means the government will also be unable to pay military salaries and Social Security benefits. A lower debt ceiling would also mean less funding for programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, SNAP or food stamps, and meal programs for low-income students.

4. The Holman rule

McCarthy also agreed to reinstate the Holman rule, which lets lawmakers propose reductions in federal salaries, in the number of employees at federal agencies, and in the budget for certain programs. Federal pay or budgets can be slashed to $1, effectively defunding programs. Already on the chopping block is the Internal Revenue Service. The agency is chronically understaffed but has also come under fire for its apparent failure to audit former President Donald Trump’s taxes in a timely manner.

5. Gutting federal investigators’ power

McCarthy also agreed to two proposals that would hugely undermine Congress’s credibility. First, one proposal will gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent federal watchdog, just as it was considering investigations into lawmakers who defied the January 6 investigative committee and serial fabulist George Santos.

The new rules would reimpose term limits on the OCE’s board members and restrict the window for hiring new staff to the first 30 days of the new congressional session (a week of which has already been wasted by McCarthy’s endless speaker votes). The changes would force out three of four Democratic-appointed board members and would run out the clock on hiring while new ones are approved, leaving the OCE unable to investigate anything.

But McCarthy is on board with investigating the FBI and the Department of Justice. He agreed to a proposed House Judiciary subcommittee to investigate the so-called “weaponization” of the federal government. The group will have access to any information shared with the House Intelligence Committee, which is usually the highest level of classified intelligence.

The subcommittee will supposedly act as a watchdog for ongoing criminal investigations, but an earlier version of the proposal limited the probe’s scope to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice.

Two ongoing investigations are into rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and into Trump over his removal of classified documents after losing the 2020 election.

Over 7,000 New York City nurses went on strike Monday, protesting poor pay and tough working conditions due to chronic understaffing.

The strikes at the Bronx’s Montefiore Medical Center and one of Manhattan’s Mount Sinai hospitals come after negotiations broke down Sunday evening.

The New York State Nurses Association had warned that workers at all 12 city hospitals with union contracts would go on strike if agreements could not be struck. After the announcement, seven hospitals struck tentative deals, including two late Sunday—but no agreement has been made yet at the two giant hospitals with nurses on strike Monday.

Nurses are disgruntled by staffing shortages, leading to long hours in tough conditions and not enough pay to match such circumstances, in which they are stretched thin trying to care for all their patients.

“Nurses don’t want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,” the New York State Nurses Association union said in a statement.

“The decision to go on strike is never an easy one, particularly for workers who care so deeply about the patients and communities they serve,” said New York City Central Labor Council AFL-CIO President Vincent Alvarez. “But hospital executives created this crisis by failing to hire, train, and retain nurses while at the same time treating themselves to extravagant compensation packages. Now it’s time for them to fix what they’ve broken.”

About 3,600 U.S. health care workers died in the first year of the pandemic alone. Now, some two and a half years after thousands drummed their pots and pans in support of the essential workers in one of the epicenters of the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses are left striking for better working conditions.

QAnon queen Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has backed away from the sprawling conspiracy theory web, conveniently at the time she is set to hold a decent amount of power in Congress.

In a Sunday interview on Fox News, Greene said she had been “sucked into some things I had seen on the internet,” including QAnon. But, she assured host Howard Kurtz, those beliefs are “so far in the past.”

She also said she never campaigned on QAnon theories because they were “not something I believed in,” a claim on which Kurtz did not press her.

This is, of course, blatantly untrue. Not only was Greene the first open QAnon supporter to be elected to Congress, but she has also wholeheartedly embraced many other conspiracy theories, including that a plane did not crash into the Pentagon during the 9/11 attacks; that the 2021 California wildfires were caused by space lasers owned by Jewish people; and that the 2020 election was stolen.

Just last week, she spread a conspiracy theory that Covid-19 vaccines contributed to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest. She also regularly pushes the old grooming conspiracy theory about LGBTQ people being pedophiles.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 investigative committee that Greene discussed the QAnon conspiracy group multiple times with Donald Trump and his then chief of staff Mark Meadows. During one of those conversations, Greene told Meadows that her QAnon supporters would be attending the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, which eventually turned into the Capitol riot.

The only thing that’s different now is that Greene stands to have outsize influence in Congress. She has been a staunch supporter of Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House, which he finally won Friday after four days none of us will ever get back and the loss of all his dignity. In the run-up to the vote, Greene urged her colleagues to back McCarthy, causing heated clashes with her former far-right allies in the House.

Moderate Republicans have expressed a desire to work with Democrats to prevent extreme bills from passing. Having now positioned herself as more moderate (than a few months ago), Greene could have a say in those deals.

Thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsanaro, Brazil’s former far-right president, descended upon and invaded several government buildings on Sunday, in an attack on democracy that has been compared to January 6. Officials worldwide have condemned the attack and expressed support for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government. This includes an array of Democratic officials, from Abigail Spanberger to Jamaal Bowman, starting all the way at the top:

It’s hard to link to all the other statements from Democrats, given how many have spoken out on the frenzied attack. And many are actively expressing their support for Lula as the rightful president, rather than just sharing amorphous defenses of democracy.

Meanwhile, there have been few Republicans speaking out in defense of democracy, or even issuing hodgepodge statements on law and order. Republican leadership has remained completely silent, with no statements from Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy. Donald Trump, who incited our own January 6, 2021, attack, has similarly been quiet.

The few statements from Republicans have come from Representatives George Santos and Brian Fitzpatrick and Senator Rick Scott.

It’s very easy to be cynical, to view Republicans’ general silence in response to a massive coordinated attack on Brazil’s democracy as unsurprising, given how many of them tacitly if not actively supported a similar attack on their own soil just two years ago. Yet it’s worth reaffirming as often and clearly as possible how radically extreme this party is that you can count with one hand how many of its members say they care about the will of the people.

Early Saturday morning, Kevin McCarthy finally crossed the threshold to become speaker of the House. The result comes on the fifth day, in the fifteenth round of voting, of what has become the fifth-longest speaker election in American history, and the longest since before the Civil War.

McCarthy secured 216 votes, with several earlier Republicans defectors instead voting “present” and lowering the number of votes he needed to win. Throughout the week, McCarthy had struggled to eclipse even 200 votes, starting first at 203, before dropping to 202 and even 201 as a group of 19 Republicans continually voted against him, round after round. Meanwhile, Democrats proffered a united front, giving Hakeem Jeffries 212 votes over and over again.

Finally, on Friday afternoon, in the twelfth vote, some movement began to occur as McCarthy continued to cave in to the demands of his defectors. As pressure mounted, just enough Republicans voted late Friday night into Saturday morning to push McCarthy through and secure the speakership that continued to evade him.

But the speakership vote is not even half the battle. If there was this much chaos just to elect the House speaker, imagine what this portends for any other vote or House business. Indeed, further pandemonium may be closer on the horizon than McCarthy was counting on:

If the rules package McCarthy put together to secure the speakership fails after he secures the speakership, there’s no telling what other hurdles may lie ahead. There’s been so much attention placed upon the 19 Republican defectors that McCarthy may have taken for granted the nearly 200 other members of his party, let alone the 212 Democrats, who might have other ideas.

Good luck, Kevin.

Kevin McCarthy was denied the House speakership for the thirteenth time Friday, as six Republicans continued to hold out against him.

The California Republican, who has been open about wanting to be speaker, received only 203 votes or fewer during the first 11 rounds of voting. His party holds 222 seats in the House of Representatives, and he needs 218 to win. He’ll need two of the remaining six Republicans to win the speakership.

Although he lost votes over the first three days, 15 previous holdouts finally switched to backing him on Friday, including Byron Donalds, who had been nominated as a long-shot challenger for two days. They all received standing ovations when they voted.

But six Republicans remain staunchly opposed to McCarthy, thwarting him at every round. McCarthy has been projecting confidence that he’ll eventually win, but it has been a grueling run.

Here are the six Republicans who continue to oppose McCarthy’s bid for speakership.

• Andy Biggs
• Lauren Boebert
• Eli Craine
• Matt Gaetz
• Bob Good
• Matt Rosendale

Gaetz and Boebert are among the strongest holdouts, nominating other Republicans for House speaker throughout this ordeal. The momentum on Friday, however, has inspired McCarthy allies.

Here are the 15 Republicans who switched to voting “yes” for McCarthy as speaker.

• Dan Bishop
• Josh Brecheen
• Michael Cloud
• Andrew Clyde
• Byron Donalds
• Paul Gosar
• Andy Harris
• Anna Paulina Luna
• Mary Miller
• Ralph Norman
• Andy Ogles
• Scott Perry
• Chip Roy
• Keith Self
• Victoria Spartz

This post has been updated.

The U.S. labor force is starting 2023 on a high note, with unemployment reaching its lowest point in 50 years in December, according to a report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nonfarm payrolls added 223,000 jobs in December, bringing the unemployment rate to 3.468 percent, the lowest level since 1969 (albeit by a very slim margin, the third decimal point). Comparatively, the unemployment rate in February 2020—just before the pandemic began in earnest in the United States—was 3.5 percent. In December 2019, the unemployment rate was 3.6 percent.

The sectors that added the most jobs were leisure and hospitality, health care, and construction. Employment in retail held steady, while state education employment declined by 24,000 jobs. University employees have gone on strike in recent months over workplace conditions. One of the biggest demonstrations took place throughout the entire University of California system and saw tens of thousands of academic workers walk out to demand pay increases.

The low unemployment rate isn’t the only piece of good news: The national average gas price, a sore spot for President Joe Biden, has also fallen lower than in January 2022.

National gas prices have dipped lower than they were a year ago. As of Friday, the national average price per gallon was $3.30, according to AAA.

Both the employment gains and the falling gas prices are huge wins for Biden, who has been under fire since he took office for sky-high inflation and unemployment, first due to Covid-19 and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Inflation finally seems to be cooling, as well, and the Federal Reserve eased off its massive rate hikes at its December policy-setting meeting. The U.S. central bank is eager to achieve a so-called soft landing, or a decrease in inflation without tipping the economy into a recession.

The fact that the labor market has remained strong overall has caused concerns that the economy has not slowed sufficiently to avoid a downturn, but Dean Baker, the senior economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research, put the chances of a recession at “less than 50 percent.”

“I think the overall picture suggests the economy can keep growing at a healthy pace,” he said of the December jobs report, but that will depend on the Fed maintaining a slower pace with rate hikes.

On January 6, 2021, Senator Josh Hawley was caught on camera running from the same incursion he helped cause. Two years later, as Hawley has continued running from culpability for his role in the attack on the Capitol, he now faces his own democratic challenge. Friday morning—January 6, 2023—populist Democratic candidate Lucas Kunce announced his bid to unseat Hawley.

In his announcement, Kunce took Hawley to task for much more than inciting January 6. Hawley was sent to a “fancy prep school” by his “banker daddy,” while Kunce’s family relied on their neighbors “to survive bankruptcy and medical bills.” Hawley joined an elite corporate law firm after graduation, while Kunce joined the Marines. Hawley supported anti-labor “right-to-work” laws, while Kunce posits himself as a committed anti-monopolist. Hawley had initially voted “no” on a bill to ease health care access for veterans exposed to burn pits; Kunce, who had been exposed to burn pits himself, rallied the cause for the bill.

Kunce told The New Republic that the hardships he faced are a large part of why he’s involved in politics. “When my little sister was born and had an open heart surgery, my family went bankrupt. We made it because the people in that neighborhood came by our house, brought us more tuna casseroles than we could eat.”

Kunce first ran for office in 2022, vying to fill Republican Roy Blunt’s vacant seat. In a crowded Democratic primary, Kunce lost to late-entrant and Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine, who then went on to lose the general election to Republican Eric Schmitt by 13.5 points. The primary still displayed Kunce’s formidability. Valentine, whose assets were worth as much as $214.7 million, largely self-funded her own $3.4 million campaign. Meanwhile, Kunce fundraised $4.6 million, more than half of which came from donations smaller than $200.

Kunce’s candidacy offers Democrats of all stripes the opportunity to rally behind someone who could truly give Hawley a run for his money (no pun intended). Missouri went for Trump by 15 points in 2020, but Hawley only beat Claire McCaskill by about six points in 2018. Kunce’s résumé and unhesitating will to expose Hawley as the faux-populist he is—and connect him to everything wrong with America—might be enough to make this race a contest.

“Generally, everyday people do the right things. You see that on ballot measures, and neighbors helping each other out,” Kunce said, referring to the success of statewide initiatives to legalize marijuana, reject right-to-work laws, increase the minimum wage, and expand Medicaid. His goal, Kunce said, is to give power back to, and trust, everyday people. “That’s the exact opposite of Josh Hawley—this guy’s all about power for himself. We’re launching on January 6 because it’s a great example of what a fraud he is. When he thought it was gonna bring him power, he’s raising his fist, he’s riling everybody up, and then the second shit gets real and hits the fan, he’s running for the exits.”

What has Kunce been doing while preparing for his Senate run? “I’ve been rereading Lord of the Rings,” he said, reminiscing of his mother taking him to the library as a kid for free entertainment. “Kinda nerdy, but hey, I play Magic: The Gathering, no shame.” He’s also been listening to his country favorites: Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. “And for TV, I did just watch Wednesday. I thought it was really good.”

This post has been updated.

Kevin McCarthy has broken yet another record for the sheer number of times he’s lost his bid for House speaker. We are now entering territory not seen since before the Civil War.

The House entered its tenth round of voting on Thursday, after McCarthy lost the seventh, eighth, and ninth rounds. The last time at least 10 ballots were needed to pick a House speaker was in 1859, when Republican William Pennington was finally elected on the forty-fourth ballot. In all of Congress’s history, there have only been 14 floor fights where more than two ballots were needed to confirm the House speaker. The longest one took 133 rounds of voting.

McCarthy has not gained any votes in the last three days, despite reportedly making major concessions Wednesday evening to the 20 Republicans opposing his bid. He even reportedly promised a one-member “motion to vacate,” meaning only one House member could force a vote to oust the speaker. (Currently, five members are required.) Instead, McCarthy has lost three votes since the first round.

But he has shown no sign of backing down.

Kevin Hern is the newest Republican nominee for speaker, as Kevin McCarthy continues losing his bid for the gavel.

Representative Lauren Boebert nominated the Oklahoma representative in the ninth round of voting on Thursday, claiming he can be the one to “unify the party.” Hern, for his part, voted once again for McCarthy in the ninth round of voting.

A McDonald’s franchise tycoon, Hern first joined Congress in 2018 and is estimated to be one of its richest members, with reported assets worth as much as $142.7 million. He offloaded shares in 12 different oil and gas companies while serving on the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. He also bought between $300,000 and $615,000 in shares of UnitedHealth Group while sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Medicare issues.

In 2021, Hern failed to properly disclose nearly two dozen stock transactions, altogether worth as much as $2.7 million, violating the STOCK Act, which mandates congressional stock transparency. Hern has also called for increasing defense funding, while being an investor in Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which manufacture weapons that have been sent to Ukraine.

Not to be limited to financial corruption, Hern was one of the 126 Republicans who signed onto a lawsuit to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In July 2021, Hern was one of just 16 members (all Republicans) to vote against a bipartisan bill to expand and ease immigration processes for Afghan allies of the United States military during its invasion of Afghanistan. Hern was also among a group of Republicans who voted against a bill that sought to expand health care services to military veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their careers. And if that all wasn’t enough, Hern wrote an August 2022 op-ed against drug pricing controls.

Though perhaps it’s unlikely that Hern will actually become speaker, he represents the Republican Party just as sufficiently as the next candidate.