October 16, 2023
Why the Speaker Fight is Healthy for America
Timothy Birdnow
I was chatting with Anne, a friend, who is not happy with the contention in the GOP over the Speakership. She asked my thoughts. I say:
I believe this is healthy Anne; our system in action. What does the House do that is so critical that it can't wait a few days, or possible couple of weeks? It did come at a bad time because nobody expected this crisis in Israel just this moment.
But beyond that I don't see any real problem here. It'll get sorted out soon. And if not it will primarily be the refusal of the RINO wing to support anyone other than a milksop Establishment Republican (such as Scalise).
The media talks about this as the conservatives refusing to support Scalise, and of course McCarthy before him, but is it not equally true the RINO Republicans simply refused to support Jim Jordan, or anybody else who won't "reach across the aisle" meaning give the store away?
An ne, while the House can't do any new business, meaning no new legislation can pass (and hence no aid to NEW aid to Israel can be raised) the Biden Administration can indeed divert funds for Israel from other projects. The fact is our government is so bloated we can send a LOT of aid on an emergency basis. Even with the War Powers Resolution of 1973 the President has enormous leeway in this regard. And of course we have an enormous amount of leeway in protecting our own citizens under the laws passed during the W. Bush Administration.
So I don't see this as the problem that many are making it out to be.
It will become a problem if this were to drag on for months, but that seems unlikely by any metric. Eventually they will find someone. They can look outside of the current House. Newt Gingrich comes to mind (although he was booted by the GOP because of his ADD approach to running things.)
Anne, our problem has always been that our side caves to the RINO wing of the party for the sake of unity. They never cave to us. Until we get control of the party nothing will be done, we will not roll back the red tide swallowing America. This is do or die time. That's something that the holdouts understand.
Kevin McCarthy was business as usual. And if you do not change nothing will change. As Einstein pointed out, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That is what conservatives were doing, and that is what the GOP was doing. The whole party needs a head shrink.
So my view is that this is healthy. If nothing else it weeds out the rot. Yes, it would have been better had this happened at another time, but I'm not unhappy about it. I think this will illustrate just how bloated our government is, and how less than vital it is. And it will help to shake up the complacency of the GOP, who have been more interested in what they can grab than what they can actually accomplish for the People. And it is exactly how the system was designed.
Remember Anne the Founding Fathers purposely designed the American system to be adversarial so as to prevent any one person or group from attaining too much power. Congress has the purse strings and the House the power to originate spending precisely for that reason. The House is designed to be the largest body and have the most power. It was supposed to be diverse and contentious and gridlocked. What is happening now is entirely what the Founding Fathers wanted. Those who want big government and to gobble up the goodies of office are now under pressure by those who seek to roll the power of the government back. That is exactly how James Madison and company designed the system.
This idea that gridlock is bad and that we must have unity is quite modern and is endemic to an imperial style government. The Federal Government was never supposed to be the primary governmental body, nor the center of all life in America.
So I think this is a healthy fight and I don't think it's the end of the world, even during this big explosion. Let Joe Biden use money he's wasting on promoting transgenderism,
Amne Replies:
Healthy? Well, that’s quite cavalier.
I believe we both are praying that we get a House Speaker sooner than later. I simply recall the difficulty in establishing McCarthy, and the Dems would love nothing more than to embarrass us, and blame the lack of Speaker for the inability to act in protection of Israel, which I believe most of them are quietly against.
I respond:
"Healthy? Well, that’s quite cavalier." How so Anne? I am saying in a multipolar republic we should not just rubber stamp someone in the name of unity. We need to debate who will lead as surely as we should debate spending bills or anything else. Not sure how it's cavalier to want to take the time to get a good leader. Did it work out so well when we had Dennis Hastert? John Boehner? Paul Ryan? We need the Speaker to not sit comfortably and collude with the other side. You are right; they will try to blame the GOP for not getting aid out to Israel. But do you really think this will make a difference in terms of the Republican electoral prospects next year? Most voters will have forgotten all about it by then. And even if they do remember it, will they really hold the GOP in scorn for it? Many people saw how the Democrats were all lockstep and screwed America over. In many ways this will draw some new blood to the party. It will show the GOP isn't the party of old rich white guys anymore, that there is a healthy and vigorous debate ongoing in the party. Would I like to get aid out to Israel sooner rather than later? Of course, which is why the timing of this was unfortunate. But the overarching goal and results are probably good for AMERICA. Maybe not so wonderful for Israel, but we are not Israelis.
Anne, if we keep putting the same people in charge we will keep getting the same policies and results. Nothing will change. Now we can help Israel here, and that would be an ultimate good, both for Israel and for our own security (although some would argue against even that as we make ourselves a target for the terrorists, but that is a whole other discussion). But what will happen? Joe Biden will still administer this funding, and even if the House somehow controlled it the fact is we will do exactly what we have always done - pushed Israel to practice "restraint" and go back to the status quo, which is nothing but a temporary armistice until Hamas can rearm and attack agaio. Then all will go back to business as usual. The House RINO wing will keep appropriating funds to give to Biden and we will fall deeper and deeper in debt. Even if we get a Repub lican President next year it won't change; the GOP Congress sent up some horrible budget-busting bills to Trump when he was President. This will continue with RINO leadership of any stripe. It is the natural order. Money is the natural environment of politicians, and it is the money that is what all of these guys went to Washington to distribute. And to acquire it they must play ball with the donors and the others who have messed the whole country up in the first place. The only way we can break that cycle is by changing leadership and getting the business-as-usu
I was chatting with Anne, a friend, who is not happy with the contention in the GOP over the Speakership. She asked my thoughts. I say:
I believe this is healthy Anne; our system in action. What does the House do that is so critical that it can't wait a few days, or possible couple of weeks? It did come at a bad time because nobody expected this crisis in Israel just this moment.
But beyond that I don't see any real problem here. It'll get sorted out soon. And if not it will primarily be the refusal of the RINO wing to support anyone other than a milksop Establishment Republican (such as Scalise).
The media talks about this as the conservatives refusing to support Scalise, and of course McCarthy before him, but is it not equally true the RINO Republicans simply refused to support Jim Jordan, or anybody else who won't "reach across the aisle" meaning give the store away?
An ne, while the House can't do any new business, meaning no new legislation can pass (and hence no aid to NEW aid to Israel can be raised) the Biden Administration can indeed divert funds for Israel from other projects. The fact is our government is so bloated we can send a LOT of aid on an emergency basis. Even with the War Powers Resolution of 1973 the President has enormous leeway in this regard. And of course we have an enormous amount of leeway in protecting our own citizens under the laws passed during the W. Bush Administration.
So I don't see this as the problem that many are making it out to be.
It will become a problem if this were to drag on for months, but that seems unlikely by any metric. Eventually they will find someone. They can look outside of the current House. Newt Gingrich comes to mind (although he was booted by the GOP because of his ADD approach to running things.)
Anne, our problem has always been that our side caves to the RINO wing of the party for the sake of unity. They never cave to us. Until we get control of the party nothing will be done, we will not roll back the red tide swallowing America. This is do or die time. That's something that the holdouts understand.
Kevin McCarthy was business as usual. And if you do not change nothing will change. As Einstein pointed out, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That is what conservatives were doing, and that is what the GOP was doing. The whole party needs a head shrink.
So my view is that this is healthy. If nothing else it weeds out the rot. Yes, it would have been better had this happened at another time, but I'm not unhappy about it. I think this will illustrate just how bloated our government is, and how less than vital it is. And it will help to shake up the complacency of the GOP, who have been more interested in what they can grab than what they can actually accomplish for the People. And it is exactly how the system was designed.
Remember Anne the Founding Fathers purposely designed the American system to be adversarial so as to prevent any one person or group from attaining too much power. Congress has the purse strings and the House the power to originate spending precisely for that reason. The House is designed to be the largest body and have the most power. It was supposed to be diverse and contentious and gridlocked. What is happening now is entirely what the Founding Fathers wanted. Those who want big government and to gobble up the goodies of office are now under pressure by those who seek to roll the power of the government back. That is exactly how James Madison and company designed the system.
This idea that gridlock is bad and that we must have unity is quite modern and is endemic to an imperial style government. The Federal Government was never supposed to be the primary governmental body, nor the center of all life in America.
So I think this is a healthy fight and I don't think it's the end of the world, even during this big explosion. Let Joe Biden use money he's wasting on promoting transgenderism,
Amne Replies:
Healthy? Well, that’s quite cavalier.
I believe we both are praying that we get a House Speaker sooner than later. I simply recall the difficulty in establishing McCarthy, and the Dems would love nothing more than to embarrass us, and blame the lack of Speaker for the inability to act in protection of Israel, which I believe most of them are quietly against.
I respond:
"Healthy? Well, that’s quite cavalier." How so Anne? I am saying in a multipolar republic we should not just rubber stamp someone in the name of unity. We need to debate who will lead as surely as we should debate spending bills or anything else. Not sure how it's cavalier to want to take the time to get a good leader. Did it work out so well when we had Dennis Hastert? John Boehner? Paul Ryan? We need the Speaker to not sit comfortably and collude with the other side. You are right; they will try to blame the GOP for not getting aid out to Israel. But do you really think this will make a difference in terms of the Republican electoral prospects next year? Most voters will have forgotten all about it by then. And even if they do remember it, will they really hold the GOP in scorn for it? Many people saw how the Democrats were all lockstep and screwed America over. In many ways this will draw some new blood to the party. It will show the GOP isn't the party of old rich white guys anymore, that there is a healthy and vigorous debate ongoing in the party. Would I like to get aid out to Israel sooner rather than later? Of course, which is why the timing of this was unfortunate. But the overarching goal and results are probably good for AMERICA. Maybe not so wonderful for Israel, but we are not Israelis.
Anne, if we keep putting the same people in charge we will keep getting the same policies and results. Nothing will change. Now we can help Israel here, and that would be an ultimate good, both for Israel and for our own security (although some would argue against even that as we make ourselves a target for the terrorists, but that is a whole other discussion). But what will happen? Joe Biden will still administer this funding, and even if the House somehow controlled it the fact is we will do exactly what we have always done - pushed Israel to practice "restraint" and go back to the status quo, which is nothing but a temporary armistice until Hamas can rearm and attack agaio. Then all will go back to business as usual. The House RINO wing will keep appropriating funds to give to Biden and we will fall deeper and deeper in debt. Even if we get a Repub lican President next year it won't change; the GOP Congress sent up some horrible budget-busting bills to Trump when he was President. This will continue with RINO leadership of any stripe. It is the natural order. Money is the natural environment of politicians, and it is the money that is what all of these guys went to Washington to distribute. And to acquire it they must play ball with the donors and the others who have messed the whole country up in the first place. The only way we can break that cycle is by changing leadership and getting the business-as-usu
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