Amid the turmoil within the House Republican caucus over the $1.2 trillion spending deal signed in Congress late last week, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that Republicans are losing their grip in the House.
Asked to weigh in on the drama surrounding the spending bill and the decisions his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces during an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” McCarthy suggested that his removal from the speakership position marked the end for Republicans in the House.
“I don’t know what they’re doing spending now, but when I became Speaker, I instituted a 72-hour rule that got not just the members the opportunity to read the bill, but America as well. You’d never waive it unless it’s a Continuing Resolution, something you’re already doing so people would know,” he said, adding, “I think it’s always helpful to allow people to read the bill, allow America to read the bill. And really, this comes down to what’s happening in Congress today. It goes back to when those eight Republicans led by Gaetz partnered with every single Democrat to decide who could be Speaker. That’s when Republicans lost the majority.”
The retired Congressman then highlighted what the House GOP was able to achieve during a short period while he held the Speaker’s gavel.
Pointing them out, he said, “The strongest, most conservative border security bill, energy independence. We did a Parents’ Bill of Rights. We stopped DC from decriminalizing. We stopped the pandemic officially. We stopped them from kicking out our men and women in the military who refuse the vaccine. We have the biggest cut in savings voted on American history — more than $2 trillion. We got welfare reform. We cut $20 billion of that from the IRS that was going to hire to go after us, very successful and you work together with a small majority, and all those bills had 72 hours to read them because people could get behind them.”
President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion spending package into law on Saturday after it passed the Democrat-controlled Senate with a 74-24 vote earlier in the day. The House had voted 286-134 on the bill on Friday.
Congress races to pass spending bill as partial shutdown looms https://t.co/FiCMtaQvFk
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However the legislation which was negotiated by Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as well as top appropriators in both parties and the White House, did not go down well with some Republicans who complained it is earmark-corrupted and lacked Republican policy riders such as restrictions to illegal immigration.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had particularly taken issue with Johnson’s decision to let the measure pass, threatening to force a vote to oust him from his speakership position.
