Democrat Life Raft?
Johnson’s alliance: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) is attempting to spend lots of your freshly forked over taxpayer dollars on several aid bills which will go toward Israel, Ukraine, and other allies. Just one problem: He cannot convince his Republican colleagues to get on board—a dynamic we’ve seen repeated over and over again, as Republicans are split on how much foreign aid the U.S. ought to be doling out (with a right-wing flank of the party continuing to make foreign aid contingent on securing the southern border).
Now Johnson is attempting to rely on Democrats to get his bills through the House. “If Democrats were to provide those crucial votes, it would mark the second time in two years that Republican leaders have had to turn to the minority party to rescue them from their own recalcitrant right-wing colleagues in order to allow major legislation to be debated and voted on,” reports The New York Times. That’s right: bipartisanship for more spending. What could possibly go wrong?
The newly minted House speaker needs Democrats’ support not only for the actual substance of the measure but also for the procedural motion that will bring the bills to the floor, as he doesn’t even have that support from his own party (which has a quite slim majority).
Unlikely pals: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R) (esteemed Just Asking Questions guest!) both disapprove of Johnson and his attempts to get Ukraine funding passed. Greene introduced a motion to vacate the speaker from his position in a snap vote, akin to how former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) was ousted last year. Massie, too, suggested Johnson should resign.
“The speaker is considering a complicated approach that would break apart the Senate’s $95 billion aid package for separate votes, and then either stitch it back together or send the components to the Senate for final passage, and potentially onto the White House for the president’s signature,” reports the Associated Press. Democrats, for their part, are calling for at least $9 billion in humanitarian aid. Though the Ukrainian war effort desperately needs more munitions, and the U.S. is already deeply embroiled in supporting Israel following Iranian hostilities that surfaced this past weekend, many conservatives (and libertarians) are opposed to the federal government continuing to shell out.
Take the public out of National Public Radio: In case you’re not plugged into the media drama of the week, Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of NPR, spilled to The Free Press and made the case for how deeply ingrained bias at his workplace has lost readers’ trust.
NPR, unsurprisingly, suspended Berliner. “With declining ratings, sorry levels of trust, and
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