“Chaos” or “clown show” or something unprecedented. That’s how the mass media portrayed the Speaker of the House battle that saw the House Freedom Caucus struggle to get Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to agree to their proposed reforms.
But it was nothing of the sort. The battle that ensued in the U.S. House of Representatives last week was a great moment for our Constitutional form of government, as well as for those U.S. citizens who expect Congress to secure our freedoms and serve “we the people.”
For many years, U.S. House of Representatives operations have been drifting away from the interests of U.S. voters. This was the case under both parties, but especially so during the last few years under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Despite potentially corrupt voting machines, extended voting periods, mail-in balloting (some would say cheat-by-mail), drop boxes, and ballot harvesting in many states, Republicans managed to elect a small majority to the House in 2022. It now appears they are focused on making it the “people’s house” again, as our founders envisioned.
Mass media made Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and others the faces of the roughly 20 individuals who rebelled against House rules installed under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi look like fools and buffoons who didn’t know what they wanted or how to get it. They portrayed Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) as legislators who wanted to see changes but were willing to encourage their fellow members to vote for McCarthy, provided there were concessions and rule changes.
But many of these legislators knew exactly why they didn’t want McCarthy. They didn’t trust him because he hadn’t listened to their more conservative views in the past.
And because these legislators knew what they wanted and held firm, the media’s attempts to portray them negatively didn’t work, and the 20 who stood firm were able to gain many concessions. Rep. Donalds gave an especially articulate summary of what they achieved, noting that they got the House back on track to operate the way it’s supposed to under the Constitution and the way that the people who elected them want it to operate.
One of the main reforms is that the Speaker will no longer operate like a dictator, and it will be much easier for legislators to remove him from office if he does. House bills will focus on single subjects, not on a few or on many subjects, so legislators won’t have to accept and pass bad measures in order to accomplish anything good. Allegedly, legislators will also have 72 hours to read a bill before voting on it. These latter two changes will keep them from having to vote on bills thousands of pages long without having had time to read or think about them.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus will also be assigned to key committees. The House also appears to be taking a hard line to limit raising the debt ceiling, as well as other actions in attempts to prevent wasteful spending, such as that in the recent $1.7 trillion appropriations bill.
The House will also investigate the current administration’s many alleged abuses of power against the people, including the “weaponizing” of federal agencies for political purposes. Votes on border security, term limits, and other issues important to the Freedom Caucus and many voters are also likely to make the agenda. Already the House has voted to defund the Biden administration’s plan to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to harass taxpayers, which, in my view, would have eliminated the middle class.
Indeed, what we saw last week was the goal laid out in Federalist #57 put into action: “The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society….” Far from how mass media tried to make it appear, last week’s work in the U.S. House of Representatives may turn out to be the most productive and useful to Americans in recent memory.
To contact KCarl or request a speaking engagement, go to www.kcarlinc.com The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
