When Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., led the charge to oust then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, many conservatives were cautiously optimistic that his successor, Louisiana’s Rep. Mike Johnson, would lead the lower chamber more capably. Surely the man with the self-professed biblical “worldview” and somewhat conservative voting record would be the fighter GOP voters need to take on Democrats’ extremism, right?
Wrong.
With Democrats in control of the White House and Senate, the House remains the only tool Republicans have at the federal level to stop funding President Biden’s authoritarian agencies and destructive policies. Yet on nearly every major spending fight that’s come across his desk, Johnson has surrendered to Democrat demands and placed conservative priorities on the back burner.
The speaker’s latest act of betrayal came Thursday, when the House passed a continuing resolution, or CR, to keep the federal government funded through early March. Despite insistence from Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., and other House Freedom Caucus members on attaching a border security amendment to the bill, Johnson declined to do so, leaving America’s open border unaddressed for at least the next month and a half.
Another clear indication the CR represented a complete surrender by Johnson and House GOP leadership: more Democrats voted in favor of the measure than Republicans. In fact, 107 Republicans supported the bill’s passage, “while 106 opposed.”
Prior to that CR, Johnson supported a nearly $1.66 trillion “negotiated” package that would have increased federal spending beyond current eyewatering levels. It also failed to include meaningful
