McCarthy\u2019s victory in the 15th ballot brought an end to the deepest congressional dysfunction in over 160 years
\n WASHINGTON
\nRepublican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives early on Saturday, after making extensive concessions to a group of right-wing hardliners that raised questions about the party\u2019s ability to govern.
\nThe 57-year-old Californian suffered one final humiliation when Representative Matt Gaetz withheld his vote on the 14th ballot as midnight approached, prompting a scuffle in which fellow Republican Mike Rogers had to be physically pulled away.
\nMcCarthy\u2019s victory in the 15th ballot brought an end to the deepest congressional dysfunction in over 160 years. But it sharply illustrated the difficulties that he will face in leading a narrow and deeply polarized majority.
\nHe won at last on a margin of 216-212. He was able to be elected with the votes of fewer than half the House members only because six in his own party withheld their votes – not backing McCarthy as leader, but also not voting for another contender.
\nAs he took the gavel for the first time, McCarthy represented the end of President Joe Biden\u2019s Democrats\u2019 hold on both chambers of Congress.
\n\u201cOur system is built on checks and balances. It\u2019s time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president\u2019s policies,\u201d McCarthy said in his inaugural speech, which laid out a wide range of priorities from cutting spending to immigration, to fighting culture war battles.
\nMcCarthy secured the gavel only after agreeing to a demand by hardliners that any lawmaker be able call for his removal at any time. That will sharply cut the power he will hold when trying to pass legislation on critical issues including funding the government, addressing the nation\u2019s looming debt ceiling and other crises that may arise.
\nRepublicans\u2019 weaker-than-expected performance in November\u2019s midterm elections left them with a narrow 222-212 majority, which has given outsized power to the right-wing hardliners who have opposed McCarthy\u2019s leadership.
\nThose concessions, including sharp spending cuts and other curbs on McCarthy\u2019s leadership, could point to further turbulence in the months ahead, especially when Congress will need to sign off on a further increase of the United States\u2019 $31.4 trillion borrowing authority.
\nOver the past decade, Republicans have repeatedly shut down much of the government and pushed the world\u2019s largest borrower to the brink of default in efforts to extract steep spending cuts, usually without success.
\nSeveral of the hardliners have questioned McCarthy\u2019s willingness to engage in such brinksmanship when negotiating with President Joe Biden, whose Democrats control the Senate. They have raged in the past when Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell agreed to compromise deals.
\nThe hardliners, also including Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry and Chip Roy of Texas, said concessions they extracted from McCarthy will make it easier to pursue such tactics this year – or force another vote on McCarthy\u2019s leadership if he does not live up to their expectations.
\n\u201cYou have changes in how we\u2019re going to spend and allocate money that are going to be historic,\u201d said Representative Scott Perry, the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want clean debt ceilings to just go through and just keep paying the bill without some counteracting effort to control spending when the Democrats control the White House and control the Senate.\u201d
\nOne of those Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, warned that the concessions McCarthy made to win the job may come back to haunt him.
\n\u201cKevin McCarthy\u2019s concessions to the extremists in his party make it far more likely that the MAGA Republican controlled House will cause a government shutdown or a default with devastating consequences to our country,\u201d Schumer said in a statement.
\nIn a sharp contrast to this week\u2019s battles among House Republicans, Biden and McConnell appeared together in Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight investments in infrastructure.
\nMcCarthy\u2019s belated victory came the day after the two-year anniversary of a Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, when a violent mob stormed Congress in an attempt to overturn then-President Donald Trump\u2019s election loss.
\nThis week\u2019s 14 failed votes marked the highest number of ballots for the speakership since 1859, in the turbulent years before the Civil war.
\nMcCarthy\u2019s last bid for speaker, in 2015, crumbled in the face of right-wing opposition. The two previous Republican speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, left the job after conflict with right-wing colleagues.
\nMcCarthy now holds the authority to block Biden\u2019s legislative agenda, force votes for Republican priorities on the economy, energy and immigration and move forward with investigations of Biden, his administration and his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McCarthy\u2019s victory in the 15th ballot brought an end to the deepest congressional dysfunction in over 160 years WASHINGTON Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives early on Saturday, after making extensive concessions to a group of right-wing hardliners that raised questions about the party\u2019s ability to govern. The 57-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-306151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n