HERE’S THE BACKSTORY ON MCCARTHY OUSTER: It all came down to a question of who do you trust.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Excerpt:
Kevin McCarthy became the first-ever speaker of the House of Representatives to be ousted, after eight of the most conservative Republicans on Tuesday gave up on the California Republican’s leadership, saying he failed to deliver on promises he made in January, including especially to fight for cutting federal spending back to pre-COVID pandemic levels. . . .
Key to understanding why the day’s events came about as they did is found in one word, “trust,” according to multiple Republican House members interviewed by The Epoch Times, most of whom spoke on background.
“The reason we got to this point was a failure of Kevin McCarthy. All he had to do to avoid where we are was keep his word, keep his commitment and at least fight for that, but he did not do that in August,” one of the McCarthy opponents told The Epoch Times before the vote.
“He dillied and he dallied and stopped and started and couldn’t decide. He was a feckless leader who didn’t cast a vision to drive us to do that, to get those spending bills through. That’s what he should have done, that’s what he promised to do but he didn’t,” the representative said.
He was referring to Mr. McCarthy’s promises when he was elected speaker in January to cut federal spending back to pre-COVID levels, to avoid at all costs resorting to continuing resolutions (CRs) or omnibus spending bills, and instead return the House to “regular order.”
The regular order of both chambers in Congress is to write a dozen major spending bills in committees during the spring, then debate, amend, and finally pass them in the summer and early fall before the Sept. 30 end of the federal government’s fiscal year.
Regular order and budgetary constraint would be nice.