It’s Time to Unify – Top 3 Takeaways – January 3rd, 2025
- It’s time for pragmatism. There’s only one way that Donald Trump isn’t certified as president of the United States on Monday and that’s if there isn’t GOP unity in the House today...or tomorrow or Sunday. If you thought 2023’s House speaker battle was messy, and it was as it took three days and 15 rounds of votes for Kevin McCarthy to eventually win the vote to become House speaker (before being thrown overboard for Mike Johnson later that year), a similar fight this year would lead us to unchartered territory. A House that’s not capable of convening a joint session of congress because it hasn’t produced a speaker. That’s a function required for conducting official House business. At issue, once again we have had a handful of Republicans who’ve been huffing and puffing about taking a hardline against House Speaker Mike Johnson following the recently brokered continuing resolution to avert a partial government shutdown heading into the holidays. A resolution that required bipartisan support in the House after 34 Republicans opposed the compromised CR authorizing $300 billion in new spending. Following that vote, Republican Thomas Massie specifically said he’s “a hard no” on voting for Mike Johnson to remain as House speaker in the 119th Congress. That matters because as Republicans are sworn into congress today, they’ll do so with only a 219-215 majority in the House, meaning that even one additional Republican voting against Johnson would sink his nomination. That is if all Democrats are united against him as is likely to be the case (they’ll vote for House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries). You’re likely familiar with the saying... “perfect is the enemy of good”. Mike Johnson is far from perfect (as is the case with all of us). With that said, Johnson has the potential to be very good, maybe even great, if pragmatism instead of idealism wins the day. That’s something that was in short supply in the previous congress with Kevin McCarthy and also with the various threats by some like Massie to throw Johnson overboard as well. As I mentioned just prior to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy in 2023: Democrats control two-thirds of the Federal government. Expecting McCarthy to act as a hardline ideologue as opposed to a conservative pragmatist is unrealistic. If you want more conservative policies in Congress – win more elections. Because Republicans didn’t win more elections last year – especially in the Senate – compromised policy is the only policy that exists in this Congress. It is literally the only policy that can exist. And as I mentioned when Mike Johnson took over from McCarthy as House speaker... That’s the reality in which House Speaker Mike Johnson will now have to operate within. For three weeks all of the congressional investigations have been on hold. For three weeks the impeachment inquiry has been on hold. For three weeks all forms of legislating have been on hold. But now it’s back to reality, one in which Democrats still hold most of the power in the federal government and in which the only way there will be any policy is through compromise. If you squint you might be able to try to make the case that Mike Johnson kinda, maybe, possibly is ever-so-slightly more conservative than Kevin McCarthy, but the fact of the matter is that he’s not really an upgrade from anyone’s perspective generally and that’s no fault of his own. It will not be his fault when he necessarily negotiates and legislates like his predecessor did – which is what must happen when you only hold a third of the power. And that’s exactly what he did do. His job. And he did it about as well as could be expected given the circumstances with Democrats in control of the Senate and Joe Biden acting as the president of the United States. But today’s a different day because Republicans won complete control of the federal government in last November’s elections and...
- The job now is simply for them not to screw it up. But that’s exactly what a vote against Mike Johnson today would be. An effort to screw it up and most importantly, potentially slow Donald Trump down. The bottom line is that Trump won a commanding victory, the largest by a Republican since 1988 – when Ronald Reagan was still president and George H.W. Bush was able to ride his coattails. The job now is for elected Republicans to vote to Make America Great Again – and nobody knows better than Trump who it is he needs as House speaker to do it. That person is Mike Johnson. As Trump said on Monday: Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. Therefore, he should have the complete and total support of the House Republican conference.
- The fact of the matter is that Mike Johnson is the single most important person in Congress in achieving Trump’s legislative agenda. Johnson met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago throughout the year last year crafting an agenda so that when Trump would become president again, they could immediately get to work making America great again. That’s in contrast to what we saw play out eight years ago when House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell weren’t prepared for a Trump presidency and as a result weren’t ready to lead with his agenda. The result was that Trump didn’t have his entire cabinet confirmed until the 97th day of his administration and he didn’t have his first major legislative achievement, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, until December of his first year. Unprepared and feckless Republicans were obstacles to Trump’s success in his first administration. There’s no room and no time for ideologues who like to see their names in headlines in Trump’s second administration. This country voted the way it voted because they want Donald Trump's agenda to become a reality. It’s the responsibility of every elected Republican to deliver it. Donald Trump, not Thomas Massie, or any other similarly minded malcontented ideologue in the House knows best who the House speaker should be. If Trump wants Mike Johnson – you vote to give him Mike Johnson. Period. It’s time for pragmatism. It’s time for GOP unity. It’s time to Make America Great Again. That starts with a vote to make Mike Johnson House Speaker today.
