Tag: speaker of the house
Johnson Rebukes Musk For Calling Trump's Big Budget Bill 'An Abomination'

Johnson Rebukes Musk For Calling Trump's Big Budget Bill 'An Abomination'

On Tuesday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk came out swinging against President Donald Trump's so-called "big, beautiful bill" and lawmakers who supported it in a series of tweets. And his tirade has caught the attention of House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Politico congressional correspondent Marianna Sotomayor tweeted that Johnson is now — delicately — giving public criticism of the world's richest man and one of the largest donors to Trump's 2024 campaign. The speaker gave his remarks following Musk calling the legislation a "massive, outrageous [and] pork-filled ... disgusting abomination."

"It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt," Musk added.

"For him to come out and pan the whole bill is, to me, just very disappointing, very surprising," Johnson said. "It's a very important first start. Elon is missing it, okay, and it's not personal."

Johnson had been previously attempting to win Musk over to his side after the South African centibillionaire recently told CBS Sunday Morning that the legislation "undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing" given its projected multitrillion-dollar cost. The speaker also admitted to sending the tech magnate a "long text message" attempting to persuade him to get behind the bill.

Musk's public criticism of Trump's first major domestic policy push is likely to further complicate the administration's attempts to get the legislation through the Senate, despite Republicans having a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber of Congress. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that it was Trump's view that Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rand Paul (R-KY) were "blatantly wrong" for insisting that the bill would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars.

The version of the bill that narrowly passed the House of Representatives by a 215-214 margin in May cuts federal support for Medicaid (the program that provides health insurance for low-income and disabled Americans) by hundreds of billions of dollars in order to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts — which are overwhelmingly skewed toward the richest Americans — for another 10 years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a Tuesday press release that the bill would result in 51,000 more Americans dying every year.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Mike Johnson

Johnson Barely Wins Speaker Election (And House Applauds Gaetz Absence)

Mike Johnson finally secured the speakership on the first ballot after three GOP lawmakers initially voted against his candidacy during a tumultuous start for the 119th Congress on Friday.

Johnson could afford to lose just one vote and win the gavel. But Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Keith Self of Texas initially voted against Johnson, which would have blocked the Louisiana Republican from winning a majority of the ballots—and handed him an embarrassing defeat.

Initially, Massie voted for House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Norman voted for Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, and Self voted for Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds. However, none of these Republicans were officially running for the position.

However, after some politicking on the House floor and negotiation by Johnson, Norman and Self changed their votes to support Johnson, giving him the speaker’s gavel.

The move was critical because Congress needs a House speaker by January 6 to certify Donald Trump’s presidential victory, which is expected to happen on Monday.

Johnson’s rocky vote is a bad sign for Republicans’ ability to govern since keeping a conference unified to pick a leader should be the easiest vote of a Congress. And the GOP has no room to spare to pass Trump’s destructive agenda, as Republicans have the narrowest majority in nearly 100 years.

The 220 seats Republicans won in November is set to shrivel to 217 in the coming weeks because Trump nominated two GOP House members—Elise Stefanik of New York and Mike Waltz of Florida—to his administration. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz also declined to take the seat he won in November after his nomination to serve as Trump's attorney general crashed and burned. (When it was announced on the House floor Friday morning that Gaetz would not be taking his seat, multiple members of the House clapped.)

With just 217 seats—at least until the spring when special elections can be held to fill the vacancies—the eventual GOP speaker won’t be able to afford losing a single vote if every lawmaker is present. That will give Johnson no room to spare when trying to pass Trump's agenda of tax cuts for the rich and border security.

Among the pieces of legislation Republicans are promising to pass include a bill to require doctors to provide care to infants that survive abortions and a bill to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, among others.

Harder still, Republicans will have to put up legislation in the spring to fund the government as well as raise the debt ceiling so that the United States doesn't default and plunge the country—and likely, the world—into economic crisis.

Given that both of those tasks will require compromise with Democrats in the Senate—where the filibuster currently remains in place, requiring 60 votes for legislation to earn an up-or-down vote—Speaker Johnson could face another revolt from hard-liners in his conference.

Indeed, far-right Rep. Chip Roy of Texas signaled that Johnson’s future as House speaker may be anything but certain.

What Johnson does have going for him, however, is that Republicans are set to change the rules to make it harder to oust him from the speakership.

In the previous Congress, one lawmaker from either party could force a vote to oust a speaker. But the proposed rules for the new Congress, only GOP lawmakers can force a vote and only if they get eight other GOP lawmakers to co-sponsor their motion.

Democrats mocked Republicans for the chaos they created so quickly into the new session of Congress.

“Well folks… Johnson doesn’t have the votes… At least on this first round…” Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas wrote in a post on X. “THE PARTY of CHAOS is at it again! Welcome to the 119th Congress!”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the changing nature of the House speakership vote.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Matt Gaetz

Gaetz Ethics Report To Be Released -- So Mattie-Poo Threw A Tantrum

Just in time for Christmas…or maybe New Years…there will be an extra-special present under the tree for followers of the many, many, many sex scandals of our favorite Florida ex-Congressman, Matt Gaetz. CNN reported today that the House Ethics Committee voted earlier this month to release the ethics report on Senor Sexcapade.

The report is supposed to be made public after the House casts its final vote before Christmas, which may come later this week…if Speaker Johnson can get off his knees from praying that Donald Trump will leave him the fuck alone and let him get a Continuing Resolution passed, a deal that has been in the works for weeks and was scheduled to be voted on by Friday.

But noooooooo. The newly-hatched Terrible Awful Disgusting Out-of-Control Duo of Donald Trump and Elon Musk today decided that the Johnson bill should be killed and were crowing on social media by this evening that the compromise negotiated between Republicans and Democrats to extend funding for the government until March was dead. Trump also threw in a demand that the debt ceiling be raised in early January so it would happen on “Joe Biden’s watch” according to reports late today.

In the middle of all this, with a government shutdown looming and two days to pass something new to avert the United States government being closed over the Christmas holidays, came the news that the gooey details on Matt Gaetz uncovered by the Ethics Committee will be made public. Gaetz resigned from Congress in mid-November in a bid to keep the House ethics report from being released and muddy up the already churning waters of his impending Senate confirmation to be the next Attorney General.

Gaetz withdrew his nomination when whispers about what might be revealed in the ethics report began spreading through Capitol Hill. This left Gaetz totally dangling, without his seat in the House that might have given him more power to influence the Republican members of the ethics committee.

So, what did Matt do yesterday? Why, he took to X to whine about how unfair it all is, that’s what he did. “I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.”

“The very ‘witnesses’ DOJ deemed not-credible were assembled by House Ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge from me or my attorneys. I’ve had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued. Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.”

That would be the “DOJ” Gaetz had been tapped to head up as Attorney General, at least until he wasn’t.

But Gaetz had an explanation, or a plea, or an excuse, or a something anyway, that he apparently thought will soften the blow when the report comes out. It seems that a more youthful version of the same twisted sicko he is today did some bad things he now wishes he hadn’t done.

“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated - even some I never dated but who asked.”

Did he ever. The Washington Post reported in late November that the House Ethics Committee had seen Venmo records showing that Gaetz had paid “more than $10,000 to two women who testified before the committee.” That would be the “witnesses” Gaetz found it necessary to put in quotes in his X post today. “Some payments were for sex, the witnesses testified to the committee,” the Post reported.

But let’s listen to the whining still emanating from Gaetz’ post on X:

“I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court -- which is why no such claim was ever made in court.”

Gaetz had plenty of opportunities to take the claims against him to court – with a lawsuit for defamation – but for some reason known only to Mattie-poo, he didn’t. Gee, I wonder why? Here’s Gaetz with his big wrap up, as of this morning:

“My 30’s were an era of working very hard – and playing hard too. It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”

Got that? Probably? Gaetz was walking around the floor of the House showing porno party-pics and bragging about his sexual conquests, apparently right up until he tied the knot.

A 2021 report on Wonkette gives you an idea of the probably playing hard that was going on, even in Gaetz’s office on Capitol Hill:

“A Hill source sent The Daily Beast a photo of a trash bin outside Gaetz’s office as lawmakers cleared out their offices at the end of a recent session. At the top of the heap was an empty Costco-size box of "Bareskin" Trojan condoms.”

Late this afternoon, Newsweek reported that Gaetz is “threatening to ‘expose’ the supposed ‘me too’ settlements of his former colleagues after the House Ethics Committee voted to release a report on its investigation of sexual misconduct accusations.”

At least one person is coming to his aid: Marjorie Taylor Greene. She released this statement late today: “If Congress is going to release one ethics report, they should release them all. I want to see the Epstein list. I want to see the details of the slush fund for sexual misconduct by members of Congress and Senators. I want to see it all.”

I don’t know for sure, so I’m going to just take a wild guess here, but I rather doubt there are many in the Republican Caucus in the House who “want to see it all.”

It’s the “all” about Gaetz himself that promises to be a thrill-ride if and when the ethics report finally sees the light of day. The House committee apparently took testimony from one witness who saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl against the side of a pool table at a party. The committee heard more testimony that Gaetz was partial to drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy and used them with women whom he was paying for sex.

But not to worry: Gaetz assures us he was just “dating” the women to whom he “sent funds.”

Let us not forget that this man who has been credibly accused of having sex with an underage girl, paying for sex with women he flew to the Bahamas, and using drugs with prostitutes was nominated by Donald Trump to be the chief law enforcement officer in the land.

I guess the way things are going, we’ll have plenty of time to read the Ethics Committee report when the government is shut down over Christmas on the orders of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, because, you know, two civilians can just shut down the government anytime they want with the Republican Party in control of the House.

Oh, boy, are we in for a treat when Trump moves into the White House and Republicans are in control of both houses of Congress and Elon Musk is floating around Washington D.C. in a cloud of Ketamine helping decide what kind of a country we’re going to have.

Reprinted with permission from Lucian Truscott Newsletter.

Mike Johnson

Speaker Johnson Fears GOP Majority Will Drop To A Single Vote

Democrats suffered three major disappointments in the 2024 election: (1) Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly lost to President-elect Donald Trump, (2) Republicans flipped the U.S. Senate, and (3) Republicans held their small majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans are calling this a "trifecta." To make matters worse, Democratic strategists and organizers are lamenting, Republicans still have a 6-3 supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court — and Trump may have a chance to move the Court even further to the right if any seats become available during his forthcoming second term.

But in an article published on November 27, ABC News reporters Benjamin Siegel and Tal Axelrod stress that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is still overseeing a small House majority. And Johnson won't have a lot of wiggle room when Trump returns to the White House in January 2025.

"President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a razor-thin GOP majority in the House of Representatives that offers Republicans barely any margin of error," Siegel and Axelrod report. "Overnight Wednesday, one of two outstanding races in California tipped toward Democrats, giving Adam Gray a roughly 182-vote lead over GOP Rep. John Duarte in the inland 13th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. In California's 45th Congressional District, anchored in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, Democrat Derek Tran has a roughly 600-vote lead over Republican Rep. Michelle Steel."

The reporters add, "In Iowa, GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is up by 800 votes in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, though a recount is unlikely to change the result in the competitive district. Miller-Meeks first won her seat in 2020 by six votes. If these results hold, the House will start with a 220-215 GOP majority — even thinner than the current Congress' margin."

But Siegel and Axelrod point out that the number of House Republicans will "drop to 219 with former Rep. Matt Gaetz's resignation" and "could fall further to 217 depending on the timing of the resignations of Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Mike Waltz, (R-FL) who are set to join the Trump Administration as U.S. ambassador to United Nations and national security adviser, respectively."

Johnson, according to the ABC News reporters, "has pleaded with Trump to avoid taking any more House members for his administration."

During a recent Fox News appearance, the speaker said, "We have an embarrassment of riches in the House Republican Congress — lots of talented people who are very attuned to the America First agenda — and they can serve the country well in other capacities. But I've told President Trump: Enough already, give me some relief."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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