For the first time in United States history, the Speaker of the House has been voted out. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican representative from California’s 20th district, served as the 55th Speaker of the House of Representatives for 270 days before he was voted out on Tuesday, Oct. 3. This action was led by the right-flank Republicans and supported by Democrats. The House is not voting to replace McCarthy until later this week. House Republicans currently have no obvious leader, which is proving even more strenuous as they cling to the majority.
McCarthy was voted Speaker of the House under specific guidelines that were agreed upon both by McCarthy and the House. The one that continues to stand out during this voting is that McCarthy agreed to appoint the right-flank Republicans to important committees within the House. Essentially, the right-flank radicalists would be able to control bills and amendments passing with these positions, and with just the right number of them, would be able to bend either with the majority or minority.
Another big term that McCarthy agreed upon in order to become Speaker of the House was to increase taxes and make it easier to block new spending. McCarthy was recently accused by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) of working and creating side deals with the minority party to increase funding for Ukraine. Gaetz and McCarthy have had a heated rivalry since January, when both ran to become speaker. This came right before Congress passed a bill that funds the government for 45 days at current spending levels and adds money for disaster relief. This being said, it did not directly provide any more assistance for Ukraine.
Ultimately, McCarthy was voted out due to speculation that he was working with the minority party discreetly without letting his own party know. McCarthy won thanks to agreements he made with the rest of the Republican-ruled House but was destined to fall due to the impractical nature of these agreements attributable to the Democratic president and Democrat-led Senate.
In all, working in conjunction with Democrats was inevitable, as it is the only practical move in such a bipartisan system. Gaetz saw an opening to remove McCarthy, to call his collaboration a weakness and to possibly get himself that gavel. In reality, what we saw from Gaetz was egocentric and somewhat immature. McCarthy avoided a government shutdown by working together for the better of our government and country, so did he truly deserve to be voted out?
McCarthy did a few good things while he was Speaker of the House. Not only did he avoid a government shutdown, but he also helped raise the debt ceiling and aided in declassifying the information related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. While he did adequate work for Americans, many things that he pushed were directly intended to spite the Democratic president. McCarthy attempted to pass laws like the Lower Energy Costs Act, multiple appropriation and spending bills, all of which would generally act against the interests of the American people. McCarthy also opened up various investigations into both President Joe Biden and the U.S. Justice Department.
Many of the things that McCarthy enacted as Speaker of the House were to spite the Democrat-led Senate and Democratic president. McCarthy did not act in the best interest of the common people; he only wanted to further himself and his party’s radical interests. While this was not the direct reason that McCarthy was ousted, it could justify his removal.
