It’s that time of year. Once again, the Democrats and Republicans are at a standstill in negotiating the debt ceiling — a tale we’ve seen time and time again. But this time, there seems to be a lot more eyes on the Republican party.
Since negotiations last April, Republicans have given the impression that they are stressing the importance of fiscal responsibility and keeping American debt to a minimum. This implies that Republicans were motivated by protecting small businesses from reduced business investment and the economy from experiencing slow growth as a result of rising debt. In April, they wanted cuts to food benefits and non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending, which includes education, transportation and health care. While I personally disagree with cutting NDD spending and food benefits, the Republican party clearly established what it hoped to gain in budget renegotiations.
But this time around it hasn’t been so clear.
The Republican party appears to have been so blinded by its strong desire to maintain fiscal responsibility that it is deviating from the foundations of its party platform. So much so that one can question whether or not fiscal responsibility even matters much to the Republicans. Is it about something deeper this time around?
The competency of the Republican party came into question starting with their apparent witch-hunt of the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who was just ousted from office. McCarthy lost his job the first week of October for working with Democrats for a funding extension to keep the government running, which was not received well by Republicans. Specifically, Matt Gaetz called his vote, “a vote for inflationary spending,” among other things, according to CBS News. Gaetz made good on his threat and called for a vote to remove McCarthy from the speakership last week.
But the relationship between Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy is more than what meets the eye. The Gaetz-McCarthy rivalry began back in January when McCarthy finally won a majority vote for speaker after 15 ballot measures. Gaetz and a group of Republicans deemed the “Never Kevins” tried their best to stop him from becoming speaker, according to Politico. This group of far-right Republicans appears to be aimed at changing the status quo in Congress, not for the benefit of the people but for their own benefit when it comes to Congressional procedures. Even Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw told Fox News that the Never Kevins’ actions were “unbelievably petty.” Specifically, they wanted promises to vote on border security, congressional term limits and procedures to oust the speaker, which very clearly aligns with their collective interests.
Given the long history between McCarthy and Gaetz, it’s clear the vote last week that ousted McCarthy was not motivated by fiscal responsibility but something deeper — an opportunity to shift the balance of power into the hands of the far-right Republicans within the Democratic-majority House. Furthermore, it exposed the deep dysfunction within the Republican party and its lack of direction.
The division within the Republican party could manifest itself in disastrous ways. The government shutdown shows how strict party lines are chipping away at the American government’s ability to function. The Republicans would rather fire McCarthy than allow him to collaborate with the Democrats. Choosing to settle a rivalry rather than focus on the debt ceiling could have led to an economic crisis, had McCarthy not taken the initiative. It doesn’t take a staunch liberal to see that this is not a time for fiscal responsibility, with the impacts of the pandemic still posing financial strain to Americans. Furthermore, the government shutting down would effectively prevent government-funded programs from paying their workers but still expect essential workers to continue showing up to work. Preventing Congress from raising the debt ceiling would have other disastrous effects, as outlined by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The dysfunction within the House continues as the first nominee for the Speaker of the House, Steve Scalise, dropped out of the race after Republicans couldn’t unify on a vote. The new candidate, Jim Jordan, could face the same fate as Scalise. Will House Republicans be able to set aside party bickering in order for our country to move forward?
