After the agreement on a transition budget in the USA, an open power struggle broke out among the Republicans. Radicals want to overthrow their own “Speaker” McCarthy, who had approached the Democrats.
After the bipartisan compromise to prevent a budget freeze in the USA, a power struggle has broken out among the Republicans. The arch-conservative MP Matt Gaetz announced that he wanted to overthrow the chairman of the US House of Representatives, his party colleague Kevin McCarthy. “If Kevin McCarthy is still Speaker of the House of Representatives this time next week, it will only be because the Democrats saved him,” Gaetz told ABC. “I’m relentless.”
The day before, the Republican, referred to as “Speaker,” had, together with the Democrats, averted a budget blockage through interim financing, against the will of the hardliners among the Republicans. This interim budget does not contain aid for Ukraine, which radical Republicans reject. However, it does not contain any spending cuts, as these same radicals had demanded.
“I will Survive”
Gaetz had been threatening the move for weeks if McCarthy approached the Democrats in the budget dispute. Other arch-conservatives had supported these statements. McCarthy appeared ready to fight. “I will survive,” he told CBS. “If he’s upset because he tried to push us into a shutdown and I made sure the government didn’t shut down, then we should talk about it,” McCarthy said of Gaetz.
If Gaetz submits the proposal, this does not automatically mean that McCarthy will lose his position. A vote can be prevented with motions. In addition, there is no clear successor to McCarthy among Republicans that all wings of the party can unite behind.
McCarthy’s concessions to the radicals
The fact that a single MP can force a vote on the post of leader is due to McCarthy’s protracted election in January. Because of the Republicans’ narrow majority, he had to make some concessions to the hardliners – including that a representative can request that McCarthy be voted out. This is a departure from the practice when Nancy Pelosi was chair: Back then, the majority of a parliamentary group still had to support this process.
The power of the radical Republicans
The dispute among the Republicans is likely to make the work of the House of Representatives much more difficult – and thus the agreement with the Senate on a final budget for the new fiscal year. The transition funding expires on November 17th.
In the House of Representatives, the Republicans have a comparatively narrow majority of 221 votes to 212. Around two dozen MPs belong to the arch-conservative camp, which rejects compromises with the Democrats.
In the USA there is no compulsory faction. But it is difficult to predict whether and, if so, how many Democrats will support McCarthy. He angered them when he initiated impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden last month, which was considered to have no chance.
The “Speaker” has considerable influence on the work of the House of Representatives. He decides which legislative proposals are put on the agenda and when – and which are not. If, as was the case after the congressional elections last November, the opposition has a majority in the House of Representatives, the speaker can use it to block the president’s legislative proposals. This makes the “speaker” the opposition leader as long as his party has not yet named a presidential candidate.