Speaker McCarthy

As you know, the impasse among Republicans in the House of Representatives was broken early Saturday morning.  After a modern day record of 15 roll call votes, Kevin McCarthy was finally elected speaker of the House.

The breakthrough came after tough negotiations with House conservatives that stretched on into the wee hours of Saturday morning.  

In spite of a relentless barrage of condemnation from Big Media, including from many talking heads at Fox News, 20 conservatives held their ground until they secured significant concessions and reforms from Kevin McCarthy, and quite frankly, the uni-party establishment that runs Washington, D.C.

I believe this debate was a great victory for principled conservatism. 

I won’t bore you with a lot of inside the Beltway mumbo jumbo, but here’s the bottom line: They got guarantees that there will be votes on important issues conservatives care about, such as critical pro-life legislation, border security and term limits.  They got a guaranteed number of seats for conservatives on the important Rules Committee, and they secured other important commitments as well.

This admirable effort by Republicans to open up debates and forge a consensus was mocked as “chaos,” “a threat to the Republic,” “a danger to democracy,” etc., etc. 

In reality, it was merely a return to how the House has operated for most of our history until recent years.  Sadly, things really went off the rails during the pandemic and got worse after January 6th.

For example, the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that passed last month was approved under proxy voting rules.  Hundreds of members were not actually in Washington, D.C. to vote on it in person.  That’s over.

The House gallery has been closed off to you, the American people.  It was only reopened at the insistence of the new Republican majority.

There hasn’t been an amendment allowed on the House floor to improve legislation in more than six years.  That’s going to change as conservatives demanded a more open process.

Many of the conservative establishment critics, particularly those on Fox News, at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, were saying, “The American people elected a Republican House to get things done,” and this delay was hurting our cause. That’s nonsense. 

The voters who elected this new majority are sick and tired of “business as usual,” and they want specific things done. 

They want to stop spending massive amounts of money we don’t have.  They want conservatives to secure the border, protect our liberties and stop the progressive march toward socialism.

Of course, there were good people on both sides of the debate.  I understand why some were uncomfortable with what seemed like a very public airing of the GOP’s “dirty laundry.”  But I believe the debate was worth having and that it will yield positive results down the road.