At the lectern in what is probably the most important parliament in the world is a man who until recently only experts knew. Mike Johnson has been the speaker in the US House of Representatives for three weeks and as such is number three in the state after President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris. Now the arch-conservative Republican can deal with the dispute that cost his predecessor his job: On Tuesday evening in Washington, Johnson initially pushed the budget through the divided chamber and may have prevented America’s administration from coming to a standstill from the weekend.
A similar maneuver was fatal to Kevin McCarthy at the end of September. At that time, he also agreed with moderate party friends and Democrats to at least temporarily finance the Biden government and spare the USA from a shutdown. Republican hardliners then used the compromise as an opportunity to overthrow McCarthy in early October. Now the successor has to see how he can get away with his fight against the next deadlines.
Without an agreement by Saturday, parts of the USA would come to a standstill
The previous transition budget is only valid until this Saturday. If there had been no agreement by then, administration officials would be temporarily laid off without pay and national parks and other public facilities would be closed. Civilian air traffic would also be affected – very inconvenient before Thanksgiving on Thursday next week, the big family celebration. Johnson was in a hurry and found a way between the camps. Until further notice. And at what price?
Lawmakers approved a two-stage plan that will keep state agencies open at least until early next year. Since the US midterm elections last year, his Republicans have been in the majority in the House of Representatives, unlike in the Senate, but in order to pass the proposal he needed a two-thirds majority and therefore the Democrats.
Many of the 336 yes votes ultimately came from them. 93 of the 95 no votes against it came from the Republicans, his party. “We have brought down the fever,” said Johnson after the decision. “This is a gift to the American people.” Whether it is also a gift to him, the speaker, remains to be seen. Such bipartisan cooperation had brought McCarthy the rebellion of the hardliners.
The Democrats only wanted to support Johnson’s draft because it contained no further calls for major austerity measures. The Senate, which is dominated by Democrats, also wants to agree as soon as possible. Its majority spokesman, Chuck Schumer, was not very enthusiastic about the agreement. But it does two things that Democrats have been pushing for: “He will avert a shutdown, and he will do so without making any of the terrible cuts that the right-wing MAGA wing is demanding.” MAGA stands for Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”
Funding for veterans, transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, energy and water programs, and military construction will be extended through Jan. 19 if the Senate approves and ultimately signs Joe Biden. According to this version, everything else would expire on February 2nd; negotiations must be carried out by these deadlines.
What will happen to military aid for Ukraine or Taiwan remains unclear
In this way, the dispute would be pushed deeper and deeper into the election campaign for the 2024 presidential election, into the months before the presumably second duel between Biden and Trump. Until then, it remains unclear what will happen to essential parts of the aid package that Biden recently requested. It’s about $105 billion, more than $60 billion of which is for Ukraine. The rest is distributed among other countries, including Israel, Taiwan and the US southern border.
The Republicans had demanded that the $14.3 billion for Israel be linked to cuts in the IRS, the tax authority they hate. Right-wing extremists reject support for Ukraine anyway. Mike Johnson stood by these Trump admirers until his rise to power; otherwise he would never have ended up in this office. He was one of those Republicans who would have preferred to close parts of the US a few weeks ago rather than wave through McCarthy’s agreement with the Democrats.
Democrats signal a willingness to cooperate
That has changed since Mr. Johnson himself is allowed to hold the mallet. If necessary, he looks for support on the other side. Parts of the Republican radical front are still letting him have his way. But agitators like Chip Roy, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene categorically reject what moderate elected officials find okay.
Now the argument is apparently even becoming physical. The Republican McCarthy is said to have elbowed his colleague Tim Burchett in the back. Burchett was one of the insurgents who deposed McCarthy. Unlike McCarthy, he now voted against Johnson’s initiative.
In his balancing act, the still relatively new speaker is pretty much in the same position from which McCarthy soon fell at the beginning of this colorful autumn. His advantage so far: Mike Johnson is the spokesman for Trump.
Johnson says his wife has “spent the last few weeks on her knees praying to God”
It doesn’t look like Trump’s people want to put him away immediately. The search for a candidate of her taste had taken long enough. McCarthy believes his successor is safe for the rest of his term in office. Johnson’s allies include the Christian fundamentalists among the Republicans. Her chosen one is an evangelical opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage who wants to make politics with the Bible.
In his first speech as speaker, Johnson reported in the Capitol that his wife unfortunately could not be there: “She has spent the last few weeks on her knees praying to God and is a little exhausted.”