Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who has major influence on a number of conservative lawmakers, urged Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz to halt his current efforts to have House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed from his position for the time being and instead to allow Congress the time it needs to completely review the 12 federal spending bills on the table that are required to pass a budget. Will he be able to get through to Gaetz and refocus is his energy on this particular task?
According to Just the News, Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, stated in a recent interview with the outlet that this is a warning that the effort by Gaetz to remove McCarthy is going to face a lot of difficulties, before the budget deadlock is solved.
“Republicans campaigned last year on returning Washington to a normal budget process after decades of passing giant omnibus budgets without individually reviewed budgets for federal agencies. McCarthy’s team only managed to get fewer than half passed before the fiscal 2024 year started on Sunday, necessitating a temporary spending bill to keep government open for 45 more days,” the report said.
“While the speaker deserves the ire and the accountability that comes with these failures, the timing of this is as important as anything else,” Perry said during his appearance on the John Solomon Reports podcast. “We fought to get these 12 spending bills through so the American people can see what their money is being spent on and who’s voted for it or against it. If there is no speaker, all that stops.”
“We have 45 days to try and get this accomplished now, and we’re you know, I just don’t think it’s optimal that we spend that 45 days fighting amongst ourselves and at the end of it still end up with nothing,” he continued, going on to add that 45 days wasn’t enough time to pick a new Speaker and get the remaining spending bills passed. “You can get zero wins for the American people.”
“I think it’s important to get these 12 bills done, get that set. And then we can go back and look at all the infractions and shortcomings of the management and make changes. And I think it’s totally and completely appropriate. But let’s focus on getting some wins for the American people,” he told Solomon.
On Sunday, Gaetz, making an appearance on national television, announced that he would be introducing a brand new motion to boot McCarthy from his role as Speaker, accusing him of breaking the deal that was made back in January between GOP factions that allowed him to be voted into the seat to begin with. On Monday, Gaetz said he would hold off on the motion until he had an opportunity to investigate an alleged “side deal” concerning spending on Ukraine.
The Florida Republican has received significant backlash, both inside and outside Congress, for his move to kick McCarthy out of the Speaker position, including a rather stinging rebuke from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who made the suggestion he himself be ousted from the caucus.
McCarthy himself is not sweating the threat from Gaetz at all, saying, “Bring it on,” and making the prediction that he would survive the effort. He also said that in order for Gaetz to be successful in his mission to kick him out of the Speaker seat, he would have to get Democrats on board.
“He’s more interested in securing TV interviews than doing something, he wanted to push us into a shutdown, even threatening his own district with all the military people there who would not be paid only because he wants to take this motion,” McCarthy said.
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