There was a lot more to the tumultuous race for Speaker of the House than the media reported.
On the surface, and as generally discussed by political analysts, it appeared to be a contest to become the 55th Speaker of the House of Representatives between Kevin Owen McCarthy, a moderate Republican from California’s 20th District, and group of conservative colleagues.
It was more than that, and even more than just a clash between different wings of the same party. Behind the scenes, deep concern about a federal budget that is out of control, irrational funding decisions, and even the national defense of the United States were underlying issues.
McCarthy was first elected to Congress in 2006, meaning that he has been in the House for 17 years. The national debt in 2006 was $10 trillion. The current national debt is approximately $34 trillion. In 2006, the United States was the undisputed global superpower. Today, China is challenging that role.
None of those developments can be blamed on McCarthy. Indeed, as a member of the GOP, he emphasized fiscal restraint and strong defense far more than Democrats in Congress. However, his conservative colleagues believe he, like some others in the Republican leadership, were too quick to compromise with Democrats, leading to excessive debt and inadequate defense funding, particularly during the Obama and Biden Administrations.
There are many factors at play here. The Great Recession, COVID, expensive wars abroad, and ten years of Democrat control of the White House occurred during that period. But far more than those singular events is the manner in which governmental budgets have been decided, not only at the national level but also in state and city jurisdictions as well.
Frankly, there is very little opportunity for rational decision-making in setting governmental budgets. Those voting are generally presented with thousand-plus page documents at the last minute with practically no time to examine the contents. Because of that, all that is generally done is to breeze through the document, make sure that one’s own key issues or pet projects are properly treated, and then cast a vote accordingly.
Much of this came to light most significantly not during a budget contest but in the battle to enact ObamaCare, properly known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a highly controversial federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.
In addressing the 2010 Legislative Congress for the National Association of Counties, the then-speaker stunningly stated “Congress “[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.” That was a clear admission that members of the House of Representatives could not know the details of what they were voting on, despite the massive implications the legislation had for the American population and the United States Treasury.
The lack of true participation by most members of Congress, the determination to enact programs regardless of fiscal realities, the massive growth of federal power, and the lack of priorities as set by the Constitution are the cause for a long-simmering anger on the part of many. That erupted, fairly or not, in the contest for Speaker that was recently resolved.
Frustration over their lack of power, an unmanageable level of debt that threatens to bring great harm to the national interest in the very near future, and the looming need to provide major financial assets to urgently needed challenges including national defense in the face of major threats, and even the potential bankruptcy of Social Security have all come to a boiling point.
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