In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.–Mark Twain
Speaker McCarthy hides his party’s lack of significant accomplishments behind a list of dubious ones. Democrats won’t be fooled. Some of those bullets are bad ideas, some would have happened anyway, others haven’t happened and won’t.
| Item | Bad ideas | Would have happened | Won’t happen |
| 87,000 IRS | Passed House only | ||
| Proxy voting | Planned | ||
| Reopen House | Planned | ||
| Military vaccine | Opposed by DOJ | ||
| China Committee | Political theater | ||
| Clean water rule | Vetoed | ||
| Oil to China | Political theater | ||
| DC crime bill | Political theater | ||
| Covid emergency | Planned | ||
| H.R. 5 | Passed House only | ||
| H.R. 1 | Passed House only |
Commitment
Speaker McCarthy’s intended audience is Republicans, particularly far-right Republicans. He needs to convince them that he is moving their agenda, so he can claim their support on must-pass bills. He needs to raise or repeal the debt ceiling, possibly act on firearms, and pass a farm bill. To do this he needs the support of the right-wing of his party. His other option is to seek support from Democrats, which sadly has been anathema for the GOP.
McCarthy’s first test may be to a farm bill. Red states will want more for farmers, Blue States will want more for SNAP, the far-right will want less for both. We will soon see if the GOP can write a farm bill that will pass the Senate and win support from the far-right or alternatively from enough Democrats to offset the far-right vote in the House.
