Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives on October 3rd. This marks the end of McCarthy's tenure as Speaker, as he has declared that he will not seek re-election to the position.
“Now we don’t have a leader, and if you don’t have a leader in congress you can’t do business in government. It really just demonstrates how broken our system is, and how we need to be able to work together. We aren’t red states, we aren’t blue states, we are the United States,” NHS Social Studies Teacher Larry Saladin said.
The final vote stood at 210-216, in favor of McCarthy's removal. All 210 votes that supported McCarthy came from fellow Republicans, whereas all 208 Democrats who voted, voted against him. The 208 democrats were joined by 8 Republicans who also opposed his continuation as Speaker. Seven members of the House did not contribute to the vote.
“Overall, it is emblematic of how crazy and broken our government is. The Republicans have the majority of the House, but they can’t pull themselves together because they have these fringe factions, specifically the MAGA (Make America Great Again) faction, that has become so strident. They don’t care whether they blow up the government or not,” Saladin said.
A number of Republicans claimed their opposition to McCarthy due to his passing of the stopgap bill. This temporary budget provided funds for several concerns, the main being the Ukraine budget. By passing the bill, McCarthy prevented a government shutdown, however, in the process, McCarthy breached the agreement he made with his party during his campaign.
“It's to the benefit of this country that we have a better Speaker of the House than Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy couldn't keep his word. He made an agreement in January regarding the way Washington would work and he violated that agreement. Kevin McCarthy is a feature of the swamp. He has risen to power by collecting special interest money and redistributing that money in exchange for favors. We are breaking the fever now and we should elect a speaker who’s better,” Florida Representative Matt Gaetz said.
Gaetz's description of McCarthy as someone who accepts money from special interest groups and, in return, carries out favors for them. This serves as one of the reasons Gaetz believes a new Speaker is needed. McCarthy disagrees with his reasoning.
“You know it was personal, it had nothing to do with spending. Everything he accused somebody of he was doing. Regardless of what you think, I’ve seen the text, it was all about his ethics,” McCarthy said.
To select a new Speaker, the majority party must first determine their candidate for the position. In the case of the Republican party, they conducted an internal vote and chose Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise as their candidate. The next step involves a full House vote to officially elect Scalise as Speaker. However, prior to the vote, Scalise decided to withdraw his candidacy.
“Scalise really didn’t have a choice, he had to take himself out. There were still about 15 or 20 right flank Republicans that claimed they would not vote for him. Without those votes, he wouldn’t have enough to beat out the minority party, and although he could reach out to the Democratic party, in the process of doing that he would likely lose votes from his party,” NHS junior John Sclafani said.
Due to the stopgap bill, the government will continue to run, but another spending bill must be passed in order to prevent a shutdown past November 17th.
“I think the divisions in the Republican party, as highlighted by McCarthy's recent demotion, are indicative of some of the divisions we see in our own society. How can we come together as a country if our politicians are divided at the same time? They are the ones that should be leading us and setting the examples and I don’t think that's what is occurring at this point,” NHS Social Studies teacher Lisa Meyer said.
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