House Speaker Mike Johnson claims Republicans are “unified,” but the growing blowback to the spending bill he passed this week suggests otherwise.
Earlier this week, he pushed through a Continuing Resolution (CR) with the support of Democrats and only 109 Republicans — the remaining 106 voted against it.
Today Congress voted to avert a crisis, the government shutdown, by passing Nancy Pelosi’s budget for the 4th time.
I voted NO for the 4th time.
There are MANY real crises.
Ask the American people, they don’t consider avoiding a government shutdown averting a crisis.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) January 18, 2024
Despite the huge GOP opposition to the bill, Johnson remains adamant that Republicans are unified.
“We’re all unified,” he told the Daily Mail on Friday. “People are frustrated that the funding of the government, the appropriations process has drug out so long. I’m more frustrated than anyone, but we have to allow the time for that process to play out.”
But are Republicans truly unified? It certainly doesn’t seem like it, especially considering how many high-profile Republicans — including nine committee chairs — voted against the bill.
Take House GOP Conference chair Elise Stefanik. Speaking with the Daily Mail, she voiced displeasure over the bill because of “concerns” about a lack of border security measures.
“My northern border district has seen an astonishing 550 percent increase in apprehensions last year across the Swanton Sector which is why I have concerns about this week’s continuing resolution,” she said.
Other “no” votes came from House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan, Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington, Homeland Security Committee chair Mark Green, and China Select Committee chair Mike Gallagher.
One of Johnson’s fiercest critics has been Rep. Chip Roy, who unloaded on the House floor Thursday afternoon about all the Democrat policies that the C.R. props up.
Listen:
“It is GROUNDHOG DAY in the House chamber – all the time, every day. Yet again, spending money we don’t have!”
SOUND ON: Rep. Roy calls on House GOP to OPPOSE continuing resolution pic.twitter.com/HkPBwYUtoe
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) January 18, 2024
“They’re gonna vote to continue to fund the radical progressive policies embedded in it,” he said. “Continue to fund the bureaucracy that’s at war with the American people. Continue to fund open borders. Continue to fund Alejandro Mayorkas, even as we attempt to impeach him in the Homeland Security Committee. We’re going to fund him.”
“We’re going to fund those open borders. We’re going to fund the United Nations. We’re going to fund the World Health Organization. We’re going to fund UNRWA to give money to the Palestinians that gets to Hamas. And we’re gonna go campaign against those things, but we’re gonna fund them. It is Groundhog Day in the House chamber all the time, every day,” he added.
Former President Donald Trump has also been a critic, using his social media platform Truth Social to argue that Republicans shouldn’t accept a border deal “at all” unless they get “everything needed to shut down” the flow of illegal alien migrants across the southern U.S. border.
Marjorie Taylor Greene aka MTG#VacateTheChair reason for trend explained here.
“…I told Speaker Johnson if he made that deal in exchange for $60 billion for Ukraine, I would vacate the chair, and I still stand by those words.” pic.twitter.com/7WG5zE2HGe
— News Watcher (@Newsfeedwatcher) January 19, 2024
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene agrees with the former president.
“He’s going to be the presidential nominee,” she said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “It’s time for all Republicans — Senate and in the House — to get behind his policies. Those are policies that we should be reflecting in our bills and in our votes on the House floor.”
It doesn’t help that Johnson reportedly rejected an attempt to attach a GOP-crafted border security bill to the C.R.
We had the opportunity to attach border security to the CR. It is what a majority of people want, and yet we voted yesterday to give billions of dollars to Secretary Mayorkas to continue the Biden border invasion policies. pic.twitter.com/Yx3jGis2kR
— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) January 19, 2024
Freedom Caucus chair Bob Good was particularly upset over the amendment rejection.
“If you don’t need our votes for the material bills that matter for the country — such as funding the government and our major spending packages — and you continue to pass those under suspension of the rules with predominantly Democratic votes, then don’t presume you’re going to have our votes for the messaging bills that don’t matter, that make us feel better, but are dead on arrival in the Senate,” he told reporters.
Another critic was Rep. Eli Crane.
“Our speaker, Mr. Johnson, said he was the most conservative speaker we’ve ever had, and yet here we are putting this bill on the floor this afternoon without conservative policy riders,” he reportedly said. “Talk is cheap. The American people deserve better.”
That said, despite this huge opposition, Rep. Matt Gaetz — the Republican responsible for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster — thinks Johnson is safe in his position, according to Spectrum News.
“With McCarthy, it wasn’t just that he was doing deals with Democrats, it was the duplicitous nature,” he told CNN on Thursday. “It was continuing to tell us one thing to do another and then to have these off-script negotiated agreements that were seemingly binding the House in the absence of any vote.”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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