DYSFUNCTION ON STEROIDS

On September 30, the government's current fiscal year will end.  

To date, the  House of Representatives has passed only one of the twelve appropriations bills that would have to be signed into law in order to continue spending after that date. In the past, the inability of one or both houses of Congress to agree on all those individual appropriations has been avoided by passing an omnibus appropriations bill.  And the problem of any deadline has been avoided by passing a continuing resolution (CR)  that funds the government until such time as that omnibus bill or all the individual bills become law.

This year, however, extremists in the House of Representatives' MAGA wing are refusing to agree to those work-arounds. 

Instead, they are threatening to close down the government unless other demands are satisfied. 

Over the course of the last week or so, those other demands appear to have fallen into three categories.  

The largest group of MAGA extremists has demanded that any continuing resolution cut fiscal 2024 spending to 2022 levels. The so-called House Freedom Caucus, a second overlapping group,  has demanded that  border security, "weaponization" of the Justice Department and "woke" military policies be addressed in any CR. And, finally, Marjorie Taylor Greene demanded that the House begin an impeachment inquiry against President Biden lest she vote against any CR.

At this point, none of these demands are rational.

Or even credible. 

They do, however, provide a unique window into the extraordinary dysfunction that is today's GOP.

The  first demand is a form of serial hostage taking.  

Last June, when the debt ceiling had to be raised, the MAGA caucus ran the same play it is running now.  It threatened to shut down the government unless the Biden administration satisfied its demands for draconian cuts that reduced spending to fiscal 2022 levels. When the dust settled, however, the House GOP cut a deal conditioning the debt ceiling hike on non-military spending remaining flat. In return, the debt ceiling was suspended through 2025.

Three months later, MAGA nuts are at it again. 

As in June, they are again threatening to shut down the government.  And as in June, they are again demanding that spending be returned to what it was in 2022.  If that demand is met, non-military spending would have to be reduced by $115 billion.  That this same demand was rejected in the debt ceiling agreement is, in their minds, irrelevant.  They think that agreement established a ceiling on spending but not a floor.  In other words, the Democrats and President Biden agreed that spending would not exceed the amounts it had reached by then.  But the GOP never agreed that those amounts could not go down. Or that three months later they would not once again threaten to close the government in order  to force them down.

This is the kind of dishonesty that makes Americans hate politics.  

The debt ceiling agreement was a compromise reached to keep the government open.  It was not meant  to keep the doors open for a mere three months.  To the contrary, it was a promise that the government would stay open through at least December 31, 2025. Nor was it an invitation to gut the government in two steps, the MAGA crowd having failed to do so in one. 

The MAGA extremists ignore all of this.

They do so because they think they own Kevin McCarthy.

Last January, when it took 15 ballots for McCarthy to win the Speaker's gavel, that victory came with a poison pill.  McCarthy had to agree to a rules change that allows any single member to move to oust him as Speaker.  

Which MAGA extremists are now threatening to do.

Under these circumstances, McCarthy has three options. 

His first and second options are to accede to the MAGA extremists' spending requests and then, when the Senate refuses (as it will, having passed twelve appropriations bills through its committees that at this point slightly exceed the limits in the debt ceiling deal), allow the government to shut down.  McCarthy wants to do neither but will have do both.  His only real aim is to retain the title of Speaker and he cannot do that unless he can cut a deal. MAGA, however, will not deal. It is not about governing.  It never has been.  It is about chaos and destruction and the whims of one man.  

McCarthy can fudge on the "woke" military because Sen. Tuberville is already doing all the heavy lifting on that front, and he can pretend to be corralling a "weaponized" Justice Department by defunding it. That leaves border security for another day, which won't cost him his gavel.  In fact, as long as Biden can be blamed for anything bad at the border, the GOP will not be too interested in controlling it.

McCarthy's third option is to appease MAGA extremists by authorizing a so-called "impeachment inquiry" of President Biden. 

And this past Tuesday he did so.

It is difficult to describe the idiocy of this move.  

The House of Representatives has been investigating Biden since it took control last January and they have nothing to show for it. Despite wild charges of bribe taking and influence peddling while he was Vice President, there is no evidence of any of this. Despite the claim that an "inquiry" will broaden their investigative powers, there are no subpoenas that have not been answered, thousands  of documents have already been produced, and numerous witnesses have been interviewed or testified. 

As importantly, most of MAGA's wild claims have already been refuted.  

The foreigner who MAGA Rep. James Comer said would confirm a bribe refuted the claim.  The allegation that $20 million was distributed to the "Biden family" through fake LLCs is flatly false; two-thirds went to non-Biden business partners, none went to Joe, and the LLCs were legit. The assertion that the investigation of Hunter Biden was slow-walked or otherwise  derailed has been refuted under oath by an actual investigator and on the record repeatedly by the US Attorney still prosecuting him.

McCarthy's authorized "inquiry" is right out of Donald Trump's playbook. 

In 2019 Trump tried to extort Ukraine into investigating Biden by withholding appropriated and critical aid, and in 2021 Trump tried to orchestrate a coup to reverse the results of an election he lost.  

He was impeached for these acts. 

So now, Trump-like in both its idiocy and childish immaturity,  the GOP must impeach Biden. 

Or, as Kevin McCarthy would put it, inquire about doing so.

Given the bowels of MAGA from whence this "inquiry" came,  we can make  three near certain predictions of events going forward.

The first is that the inquiry will disclose no basis for impeachment. The second is that it will last the rest of this year and most of 2024. And the third is that, armed with a raft of lies, the GOP House will actually vote to impeach Joe Biden. 

Probably two weeks before the November 2024 election.

So that the Senate cannot acquit him . . .

Before the voters do.