What has Kevin McCarthy horse-traded in order to achieve enough votes to become House speaker? McCarthy has been in trade talks since Election Day. Concessions have increased with each successive vote (we’re up to six) in McCarthy’s quest to become House speaker and be officially ensconced into the office he’s already moved into.
McCarthy began with an already robust list of things he’d aspire to achieve as speaker and now, Reps. Chip Roy and Andy Biggs of the House have been wrangling for more in a scene reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi’s backroom deals with her Left flank. Indeed, as PJ Media’s Gwendolyn Simms reports, there have been at least 22 concessions to the Never Kevins in the Republican Party.
One of the few things all sides in the drama agree with McCarthy on is that “Congress is broken and needs to change.”
Here’s a quick list of the items that McCarthy promised to the rebels in the Republican caucus and their allies:
- McCarthy’s allies, who run his Congressional Leadership Fund that helps GOP House candidates, agrees to “not spend in any open-seat primaries in safe GOP districts.”
- Allow rank-and-file members to offer amendments on “all major rules bills, such as appropriations, under a deal with the Club for Growth-backed rebels, according to The Hill.
- A snap election for speaker by a vote of five or possibly fewer Republican caucus members.
- Additional conservative members on the powerful House Rules Committee
- Pass tougher border security laws
- End use of magnetometers for House members to enter the floor, a move ordered by Pelosi for post-January 6 theatrics.
- Create a select committee to investigate the weaponization of intelligence agencies against the U.S.
Just spitballing here: those aren’t concessions for anyone’s vanity but for more transparency and benefit to Americans.
Keep going, rebels.