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Republican voters should be absolutely furious with their elected leaders.
As I wrote in 2013 on the fight over Obamacare:
Republicans bet everything to defeat President Obama’s health care reform plan — without ever offering a real alternative or working with Democrats to find common ground. Then they doubled-down on hopes the Supreme Court would overturn the law. They doubled-down again believing that voters would deny President Obama re-election and they could repeal the law. They lost every time.
Now, the country will live under a health care law — for probably a generation or more — that could have been based on many Republican ideas had they simply negotiated.
More than a decade later, Republicans are using the same playbook.
Their refusal to compromise — this time with their own party leaders — has not only kept Republicans ideas from becoming law, it’s effectively stripped House Republicans of their majority.
In a truly unprecedented move late last night, the House Rules Committee — also known as the “Speaker’s Committee” because the speaker has near total control — needed Democratic votes to pass a rule for a foreign aid package headed for a vote this weekend.
After that vote, it seems certain that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will bring up a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
In order to keep his job, Johnson will again need Democratic votes. And those votes will almost certainly come at a price.
As Politico notes:
By that point, Johnson will have relied on Democrats to pass all of the key spending legislation of his tenure, to help him regain control of the Rules Committee, to pass aid to Ukraine over the objections of many GOP members, and to remain in power as speaker.
This only happened because a significant number of Republican lawmakers refuse to compromise with members of their own party.
Johnson should be commended for moving a much-needed foreign aid package. But it comes at the cost of his own — and his party’s power — in governing the House.
The chamber is now effectively controlled by a bipartisan power-sharing agreement.
Defenders of Johnson will correctly point out that he has only the slimmest of majorities to work with.
But they should be reminded that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had the exact same narrow majority and was still able to use it to pass historic legislation.
Here’s what else I noticed this week
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has built one of the most efficient electoral machines in modern politics.
Most British voters now believe Brexit was a mistake.
America’s trust in its institutions has collapsed.
Russia is bombing Ukraine into darkness.
Pro-Palestinian protests could foreshadow a summer of upheaval.
What Iran’s attack on Israel revealed about its weapons arsenal.
Haiti names transitional council to handle crisis.
Philippines plans ambitious exercise with U.S.
The Texas power grid is already swooning and it’s only spring.
The overlooked threats to the global financial system.
Where abortion could be on the ballot in 2024.
Microplastics make their way from the gut to other organs.
Imported trash swamps Southeast Asia.
The great commercial takeover of low Earth orbit.
Are flying cars finally here?
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