US US Politics General - Discussion of President Biden and other politicians

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Loads of retards here falling for doomer and blackpilling memes without actually thinking about the situation. You guys are massively misunderstanding how these votes work, and how politics themselves are supposed to work.

For starter, the fact the vote for speaker became a actual vote instead of the rubber stamping it was "supposed to be" is already one win. It shows that unlike the "squad" the Freedom Caucasus is willing to stand up to their own ideals and clash with the party leadership. Compare this with the Squad who made some noise about refusing to send money to Israel and Pelosi just shook her finger at them and they proceeded to capitulate like complete children while literally shaking and crying. And over something they wouldn't even have changed the results of!

For another, the fact some of the Freedom Caucasus started voting for McCarthy after the first few votes isn't a sign of "cucking out", but how votes are supposed to go. Repeated votes like this show the mood in the blocks and the ways winds are blowing, some choosing to say yay instead of nay or present shows they are open to the negotiations, that the negotiations are working or not.

Thirdly, Trump. Despite coming to support McCarthy, Trump's support did absolutely nothing to move any of the votes. This is a big sign that MAGA as a movement is not longer just the personal fiefdom of the Don but instead a true movement. Bobert was called out on this on Fox news and she simply said as much: "I respect President Trump and all he did but this does not change the objectives we are going for". This is actually a bigger deal for the Uniparty and Anti-Trump crowd than it is for MAGA because the massive majority of the anti-MAGA propaganda is focused on making sure you are aware that "literally everyone" who spouts MAGA points is just a Qanon Trumper SS Trooper ready to march on D.C. to literally lynch niggers and gays on Trump's orders and who will worship the Orange One like Christ Himself. It will now be even more obvious to those who are not complete hopeless NPCs that the media is a propaganda show (and yeah some of the people here will go "oh that changes nothing" to which I say "every little bit helps")

The real issue people should be focused on now is the concessions that the FC did get, and how they are gonna ensure that McCarthy follows on them. On this point the blackpill and doomer crowds are absolutely right to a point to the whole "scorpions never change their nature" and all. However one has to remember that a big point of the FC and the MAGA crowd they come from is they have already been burned quite a few times, they are not likely to just agree to sinple words.

If it was up to me I would have required the agreement to have written backing on a contract or something like that. I am unaware of the legal minutia and the precise nature of legal contracts in the USA for these sorts of things so it might be that such a thing is simply not legal or enforceable but I would at the very least make sure I had some very spicy guarantees and insurance before saying yes. A bit of armor on my back before taking the scorpion with me, if you will.

In any case, 2023 should turn out to be a very fun year if the very first week already had such spicy drama in the halls of D.C.
 
@ShitLurker the recent omnibus bill is a bad example to bring up since it was already passed before this Congress began its session. I understand your sentiment nonetheless. All I'm saying is that they could be a thorn on the RINO side. I'm not counting on that though, and even if they were, we all know the RINOs will find a way to get enough votes from the Left provided they offer them a lot of concessions.
 
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An article from The Hill regarding the concessions McCarthy gave to the FC members:

McCarthy concessions to win Speakership raise eyebrows

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was forced to give in to a series of demands from detractors to win the support necessary to win the Speaker’s gavel after a historic week of failed ballots.

While most GOP lawmakers are downplaying the significance of McCarthy’s concessions, the changes — which are designed to empower rank-and-file members at the expense of his own leadership authority — are also raising concerns that they could cripple the governing functions of the lower chamber

One change in particular — which empowers a single lawmaker to launch the process of ousting the Speaker — is giving heartburn to lawmakers in both parties, who fear a hard-line group of conservatives will use it repeatedly to browbeat McCarthy into keeping crucial must-pass bills off the floor.

The result, they say, will be a heightened risk of shuttering the government, defaulting on federal debts and grinding the business of the House to a screeching halt.

“I think it’s a terrible decision,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

“If one person can push a motion to vacate, we’ll do this again. How would you like to do this every week?” he said, referring to the internal battle that delayed McCarthy’s Speakership victory for days. “I think that’s the future with a few of these individuals. … It weakens the Speaker, and it strengthens the smallest caucus of all the caucuses.”

Some of McCarthy’s conservative critics have also demanded that any move to raise the nation’s debt ceiling — which allows the government to borrow money to pay its obligations — must be accompanied by cuts in the nation’s entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare. And a provision of the new House rules package requires a separate vote on hiking the debt limit.

“It’s safe to say that we believe there ought to be specific, concrete limits on spending attached to a debt ceiling increase,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday.

“There will be no clean debt ceiling increase, that’s for sure,” echoed Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another McCarthy opponent who was brought around to support him by the new concessions.

That demand has prompted howls from Democrats, who want to protect the nation’s safety net programs and fear the heightened risk of a federal default if McCarthy yields to the conservatives’ wishes.

“If they do the debt ceiling, we’re screwed,” a Democratic lawmaker said Friday.

Another major concern for centrist Republicans throughout the week’s marathon negotiations was the conservatives’ push to win more subcommittee gavels for themselves — an idea that infuriated those already in line for those seats.

Bacon had called it “a non-starter,” particularly among the more moderate Republicans who have worked their way up the ladder into those seats.

“If you’re talking about chairmanships and things like that, they’re gonna have to still earn it,” Bacon said. “I call it affirmative action for [the] smallest of the caucuses to put them in leadership roles when they’ve not earned it. We believe in a merit-based system on the GOP side.”

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), who has served in the House since 2013, also highlighted the “seniority process” for chairmanships.

“Everybody has to work their way through the seniority process and earn positions on both committees and gavels and things of that nature,” she said.

The other changes adopted by Republicans as they open the 118th Congress are less controversial. They include a guaranteed floor vote to establish term limits for all House lawmakers; an open amendment process, providing rank-and-file lawmakers with more power to alter legislation; adoption of the so-called Holman rule, which grants Congress new powers over federal agencies; and a 72-hour rule, which requires a full three days to allow lawmakers to read bills before they hit the floor.

Those changes have all been adopted at points in the past. And most Republicans are brushing aside any narrative that McCarthy gave too much up for the gavel in return.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who emerged as one of McCarthy’s most vocal advocates amid the Speaker’s race.

“These concessions have been agreed to by our conference, and ultimately I believe it’s going to lead to a more people-driven legislative process,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). “It’s about restoring more power and decision-making to the members.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) downplayed concerns about even the single-member motion to vacate, saying there is little difference between a one-person or five-person threshold, which was the minimum in the initial rules package.

“You already agreed to five. What’s the difference between five and one?” he said. “It’s an accountability issue. So let’s just all work as a team, and it’ll be fine.”

McCarthy himself is also defending the ninth-inning negotiation, assuring that the key concession will not make him a “weaker Speaker.”

“It would only be a weaker Speaker if I was afraid of it,” he told reporters Thursday night. “I won’t be a weaker Speaker.”

“That’s the way it’s always been except for the last Speaker. I think I’m very fine with that,” he added.

But Democrats are sounding the alarm, warning that the California Republican’s offer to his right flank diminishes his authority at the detriment of stable governance.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had eliminated the single-person vacate rule as Speaker in the previous two Congresses, called its reinstatement “ridiculous.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the previous House majority leader, said the deal gives too much power to the Republicans’ far-right fringe.

“I think he gave away much more than I wish he’d given,” Hoyer said. “I think it does give to a small, willful faction of his caucus, a negative faction of his caucus, a faction of his caucus that has been almost uniformly obstructionist, more authority than they ought to have.”
For some context who the Republican House member Don Bacon is:
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On another topic after some thought there are three big takeaways from this whole 118th Congress Speaker vote debacle:
1. Right-Wing Americans Populists don't necessarily need Trump anymore or his approval to act on things.
2. There are some Republicans who really hate the Freedom Caucus and what they represent.
3. The Republican Party is mostly unwilling to absorb more conservative politicians that would actually do something to halt slow motion socialism and speed limit liberalism compared to the Democrat Party who is gradually integrating more radical politicians under the guise of "progressive" activists. More or less, the former see alternative lines of thought as a threat, the latter embraces them as the future.
 
For completeness here's a purported list of McCarthy's concessions (via Epoch Times). Interesting to note is that is apparently not all of them:
  1. As has been reported, it will only take a single congressperson, acting in what is known as a Jeffersonian Motion, to move to remove the Speaker if he or she goes back on their word or policy agenda.
  2. A “Church” style committee will be convened to look into the weaponization of the FBI and other government organizations (presumably the CIA, the subject of the original Church Committee) against the American people.
  3. Term limits will be put up for a vote.
  4. Bills presented to Congress will be single subject, not omnibus with all the attendant earmarks, and there will be a 72-hour minimum period to read them.
  5. The Texas Border Plan will be put before Congress. From The Hill: “The four-pronged plan aims to ‘Complete Physical Border Infrastructure,’ ‘Fix Border Enforcement Policies,’ ‘Enforce our Laws in the Interior’ and ‘Target Cartels & Criminal Organizations.'”
  6. COVID mandates will be ended as will all funding for them, including so-called “emergency funding.”
  7. Budget bills would stop the endless increases in the debt ceiling and hold the Senate accountable for the same.
Stuff like the term limits and Texas Border Plan won't ever pass a House vote courtesy of the Dems, but rules changes and the like will prove to be a serious thorn. McCarthy can renege on them by next week and have to fight, beg, and plead for every bill as Gaetz goes scorched earth, or commit to them and have to do the same when someone decides they've had enough with him as Speaker (or a Dem screams racism, whichever happens first). Either way nothing of substance gets done.
 
@ShitLurker the recent omnibus bill is a bad example to bring up since it was already passed before this Congress began its session. I understand your sentiment nonetheless. All I'm saying is that they could be a thorn on the RINO side. I'm not counting on that though, and even if they were, we all know the RINOs will find a way to enough Leftists to join their side provided they offer them a lot of concessions.
Fair, but my point is due to the make up of the senate, they can't achieve much even if they wanted to. If the Senate was also republican? Oh they could cock block a mean storm, but the Dem senate will already take care of that anyway. Change the 20 for rinos and the only thing passing through house and senate is bipartisan stuff that in a healthy environment would just be normal negotiations, but in our current setup it just translates to uniparry shit were the left and right hand can get along.

They had a golden chance to block the uniparty for at least two years. They instead negotiated with the scorpion and will whine when they get stabbed instead. Or it could have at least forced another good mask off moment with Dems voting for McCarthy or republicans for Jeffries.

But reading what @Breadbassket posted sounds like they are just in everybody's shitlist now for not much gain. Also dissapointed on Trump being "vote McCarthy in, it will be fine", he should have fucking learned.
 
Sounds great, but I need to know how enforceable this is. I remember I think Gehena saying that a republicans value within the party is only as relevant as it's ability to keep promises, but I was also told the Maralago raid was a big deal for the republicans and it ended up being a non issue for them since it hit "the outsider". Why would they keep promises for what they see as a tumor? What is stopping them? What are the consequences? And how can democrats abuse any of those points as well?
 
With no evidence to support this other than the continual cucking of every Republican in Washington, I firmly believe Gaetz et al. will not use the "Jeffersonian Motion" to kick McCarthy to the curb when he inevitably stabs them in the back, and instead make some Twitter posts or get real mad on Fox News or some other gay shit. Assuming they even make good on the proposed concessions.
 
Loads of retards here falling for doomer and blackpilling memes without actually thinking about the situation. You guys are massively misunderstanding how these votes work, and how politics themselves are supposed to work.
It's much easier to mindlessly "doompost" than to think logically.
 
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