The biggest fireworks on Capitol Hill these days aren’t between Republicans and Democrats. Instead, Congress is watching an ongoing tussle among GOP lawmakers which threatens to undermine House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The latest scrap centered this week on a major defense bill, a bipartisan plan which has been approved by Congress for over 60 consecutive years. The bill was approved in committee by a vote of 58-1, but some GOP conservatives didn’t like the details.
This isn’t a debate about funding more fighter jets, building extra tanks, or buying new weapons. Instead, it’s about conservatives pressing social issues inside the Pentagon such as abortion, transgender treatments, and race.
The risk for GOP leaders is clear — moving too far to the right on social issues in the defense bill not only drives away Democrats but could also alienate more moderate Republicans, especially on abortion.
“The dysfunction of watching the right wing fight with the extreme right wing is just embarrassing,” said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., as Democrats were happy to pour gasoline on the GOP flames.
This bill is also a reminder of how much Republicans have changed on defense. For example, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, called on the U.S. to withdraw from NATO while President Biden was at a NATO summit.
“They are not a reliable partner,” Greene said of NATO allies, backing a foreign policy choice that would be very popular in the Kremlin.
It wasn’t only the defense bill that is in turmoil. A group of conservatives also vowed to vote against any government funding bills which don’t meet their approval.
“We intend to keep the promises we made to the American people to cut federal spending,” 21 Republicans wrote in a letter to the Speaker.
While no Georgia Republicans signed that letter, several have called for deeper spending cuts — an issue that gets to the heart of this GOP battle.
After barely getting elected as Speaker back in January, McCarthy seemed to consolidate his power in May, after hammering out a debt limit agreement with President Biden.
But conservatives rebelled against what’s basically a two-year spending freeze — demanding big spending cuts — as GOP rebels shut down the House floor for a week in protest.
Instead of giving in to conservatives, McCarthy does have another choice. He could ignore the legislative threats from his own party and have bipartisan House majorities easily pass spending bills and the defense bill.
But going against the Freedom Caucus also might cost McCarthy his job as Speaker.
Who is in charge of the U.S. House? Usually, it’s the Speaker. But this GOP Congress is a little different.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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