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☆ Hard Right Presses Culture War Fights on Defense Bill, Imperiling Passage
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Karoun Demirjian | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hard-right House Republicans are pushing to use the yearly bill that sets the United States military budget and policy as an opportunity to pick fights with the Biden administration over abortion, race and transgender issues, imperiling its passage and the decades-old bipartisan consensus in Congress around backing the Pentagon. Republican leaders have scheduled votes beginning on Wednesday on the $886 billion measure, but as of Tuesday evening, they had yet to dissuade their ultraconservative colleagues from efforts to load it up with politically charged provisions to combat what the G.O.P. calls “wokeness” in the military. Those proposals — including rolling back a Pentagon policy providing service members access to abortions and defunding the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs — would alienate the moderate Republicans and Democrats whose votes would be needed to get the bill through the narrowly divided House. The situation has turned the annual defense policy bill into the latest test of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership since the far right revolted over the debt ceiling deal he forged with President Biden, grinding the House to a halt to demand more influence over its agenda.

Persons: Biden, “ wokeness, Kevin McCarthy’s Organizations: Republicans, United States, Pentagon, Republican

House Republican leaders working to write and pass the spending bills that fund the government face a major hurdle: Their own party — especially their most powerful, arch-conservative faction — has spent the last decade assailing federal spending and, with growing frequency, casting vote after vote against it. members of the House have supported spending bills less than half the time over the last dozen years, according to a New York Times analysis of such votes since 2011. Hard-right lawmakers associated with the Freedom Caucus, which has been the most outspoken about slashing spending, have voted in favor of government funding bills less than 20 percent of the time. Despite all of that, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, working to manage a right-wing revolt, has agreed to tailor the spending bills to the demands of a group of lawmakers who have rarely, if ever, supported such measures during their time in Congress. The approach could make it difficult to move the bills through the House and place the chamber on a collision course with the Democrat-controlled Senate that could lead to a government shutdown this fall.

Persons: —, Kevin McCarthy, Biden Organizations: Republican, New York Times, Freedom Caucus, Democrat

Earlier this month, a group of hard-right Republicans hijacked the floor of the House of Representatives in protest against Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The mutiny, staged by nearly a dozen members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, raised questions about whether the speaker could continue to govern his slim and fractious majority. Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent for The Times, explains how and why this small group of members made the chamber ungovernable.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, Annie Karni Organizations: Republicans, Caucus, The Times

☆ Guatemala Picks a New President: What You Need to Know
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Jody García | Simon Romero | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Another top challenger, Zury Ríos, 55, is also a familiar figure in Guatemalan politics. She is the daughter of Efraín Ríos Montt, a dictator in the early 1980s who was convicted in 2013 of genocide for trying to exterminate the Ixil, a Mayan people. While the evidence against her father was meticulously documented and detailed at his trial, Ms. Ríos has claimed repeatedly that no genocide ever took place. Her ultraconservative party is led by figures with links to her father. Still, while Ms. Ríos promotes her conservative credentials and evangelical Christian beliefs, she has a more nuanced record as a former member of Congress when she forged alliances in an effort to win legislative approval for bills aimed at improving conditions for women and L.G.T.B.Q.

Persons: Torres, Zury Ríos, Efraín Ríos Montt, Ríos, Still, Edmond Mulet, Mulet Organizations: European Union, United Nations Stabilization Locations: El Salvador, United States, Haiti

☆ Brian Kemp Does the Climate Policy Tap Dance - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Michelle Cottle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Quick quiz: Which popular governor has been sweet-talking electric vehicle industries and developing E.V. infrastructure in his state, with an eye toward making it “the electric mobility capital of America?”If you guessed Brian Kemp of Georgia, give yourself a high five. Maybe even a high 10. Because on the face of it, there’s no reason to guess that an ultraconservative leader of a reddish-purple state is a green-vehicle revolutionary. The issue remains a favorite culture war cudgel for Republicans, slamming Democrats as a bunch of bed-wetters wrecking the economy over an inflated threat that, as Donald Trump scoffed, “may affect us in 300 years.”Except, as Mr. Kemp tells it, electric vehicles aren’t about combating climate change.

Persons: Brian Kemp of, Donald Trump scoffed, Kemp, —, “, ” Organizations: Republicans Locations: America, Brian Kemp of Georgia

☆ In Branson, Missouri, a Two-Wheeled Fix for the Commuter Blues
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Richard Fausset | Chase Castor | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WHY WE’RE HEREWe’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In this Midwest tourist town, a housing crisis has led to creative transportation solutions. Eventually, she was evicted, her car was repossessed, and she found herself living at first in the woods, and later in one of the old motels around the city’s gaudy entertainment strip. By some estimates, close to 20 percent of the people living in Branson are homeless or staying in motels. They are workers and drifters, service industry strivers and worn-down honky-tonkers, some struggling with addiction, some raising children under trying circumstances.

Persons: Christie Schubert, Schubert Locations: Branson, Mo, America

☆ Southern Baptists’ Fight Over Female Leaders Shows Power of Insurgent Right
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two summers ago, an insurgent group of ultraconservative Southern Baptists branded themselves as pirates, vowing to “take the ship” of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and steer it farther to the right on issues like sexuality and race. They were determined to halt what they saw as rising liberalism and drift from biblical truth. Many were outraged that one of their most prominent churches had ordained three women. Now, the ultraconservatives are seizing power, and the ship is beginning to turn. But it also stems from growing anxieties many evangelicals have about what they see as swiftly changing norms around gender and sexuality in America.

Organizations: Southern Baptists Locations: New Orleans, America

☆ U.S. National Debt Tops $32 Trillion for First Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But the debt is on track to top $50 trillion by the end of the decade even after newly passed spending cuts are taken into account. Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said during the standoff in May that spending cuts proposed by lawmakers failed to address the costs of social safety net programs. While avoiding a default would prevent an immediate crisis, he said, the ballooning debt is a persistent problem that needs to be addressed. A failure to pass and reconcile House and Senate bills by Oct. 1 could lead to a government shutdown. At the same time, House Republicans started considering a new round of tax cuts this week.

Persons: Mark Zandi, Mr, Zandi, Biden, Kevin McCarthy Organizations: Congressional, Republican majority’s, Republicans, Federal

☆ Debt Deal Behind Them, Lawmakers Plunge Into Bitter Spending Fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Carl Hulse | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After narrowly avoiding a federal default, the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate are now on a collision course over spending that could result in a government shutdown this year and automatic spending cuts in early 2025 with severe consequences for the Pentagon and an array of domestic programs. Far-right Republicans whose votes will be needed to keep the government funded are demanding cuts that go far deeper than what President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to in the bipartisan compromise they reached last month to suspend the debt ceiling, but such reductions are all but certain to be nonstarters in the Senate. The looming stalemate threatens to further complicate a process that was already going to be extraordinarily difficult, as top members of Congress try for the first time in years to pass individual spending bills to fund all parts of the government in an orderly fashion and avoid the usual year-end pileup. If they cannot, under the terms of the debt limit deal, across-the-board spending cuts will kick in in 2025, a worst-case scenario that lawmakers in both parties want to avoid. The clashes began this week, when House appropriators began considering their spending bills and, working to appease their ultraconservative wing, said they intended to fund federal agencies at below the levels that Mr. Biden and Mr. McCarthy had agreed to.

Persons: Biden, Kevin McCarthy, appropriators, McCarthy Organizations: Republican, Democratic, Pentagon, Senate

☆ Hard Right Agrees to Allow House Votes but Threatens Continued Blockade
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Annie Karni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hard-right House Republicans agreed late Monday to give their party leaders a temporary reprieve from a weeklong blockade of the House floor, allowing some legislative business to move forward on Tuesday but insisting they would withhold their support for future votes if their demands were not met. The move counted as progress for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, after days of paralysis in the House that showcased his weak grip on his fractious conference in the face of the rage of right-wing Republicans over the deal he cut with President Biden to suspend the debt limit and avert a federal default. But the agreement was only provisional, and the group of about a dozen ultraconservative lawmakers who have held the floor hostage made it clear they planned to continue using guerrilla tactics to keep a tight leash on Mr. McCarthy, effectively exercising veto power on what he is able to accomplish. The House remained at a standstill on Monday evening, after Mr. McCarthy canceled scheduled votes. In conversations on Monday, the people said, members of the rebel group were explicit with Mr. McCarthy that he could not count on their support for bringing up any other legislation next week or in the future, until they had worked out a power-sharing agreement that guaranteed them major influence on the legislative agenda.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, Biden, McCarthy Organizations: Republicans, Caucus

☆ House Is Paralyzed as Far-Right Rebels Continue Mutiny Against McCarthy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Annie Karni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hard-right Republicans pressed their mutiny against Speaker Kevin McCarthy into a second day on Wednesday, keeping control of the House floor in a raw display of their power that raised questions about whether the speaker could continue to govern his slim and fractious majority. Mr. McCarthy, who enraged ultraconservative Republicans by striking a compromise with President Biden to suspend the debt limit, has yet to face a bid to depose him, as some hard-right members have threatened. But the rebellion has left him, at least for now, as speaker in name only, deprived of a governing majority. “House Leadership couldn’t Hold the Line,” Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a leader of the rebellion, tweeted on Wednesday. In a remarkable act of intraparty aggression, about a dozen rebels ground the chamber to a halt on Tuesday by siding with Democrats to defeat a procedural measure needed to allow legislation to move forward, and business cannot resume until they back down and vote with their own party.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy, Biden, Matt Gaetz Organizations: Republicans, Republican, Caucus Locations: Florida

A group of hard-line Republicans hijacked the House floor on Tuesday, grinding legislative business to a halt for several hours in a striking display of ire at Speaker Kevin McCarthy for making a deal with President Biden to suspend the debt limit and banding together with Democrats to muscle it to passage. The mutiny, staged by nearly a dozen members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus as leaders sought to bring up legislation to guard against restrictions on gas stoves and other federal regulations, reflected the bitter acrimony lingering in the Republican ranks after passage of the debt limit measure last week. It indicated that, even as right-wing lawmakers suggest they are not yet inclined to try to oust Mr. McCarthy from his post over the compromise, they plan to use their clout in the closely divided House to make the speaker’s job impossible unless he bows to their will. “We’re concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal, and the answer for us is to reassert House conservatives as the appropriate coalition partner for our leadership, instead of them making common cause with Democrats,” Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida told reporters.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, Biden, Mr, McCarthy, “ We’re, Matt Gaetz Organizations: Republicans, Caucus, Republican Locations: Florida

☆ Conflict With the Far Right Shrouds Jerusalem’s Pride Parade
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Isabel Kershner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One ultraconservative member of the Israeli government had pledged to abolish the Jerusalem Pride and Tolerance Parade. Another far-right minister with a history of homophobia, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who now oversees the police, is tasked with securing it. The Jerusalem parade is normally a relatively staid annual tradition. But the event on Thursday is taking place at a fraught moment, five months after the most hard-line and religiously conservative government in Israel’s history took power. activists have reported a sharp increase in anti-gay abuse and violence in Israel in recent months, and say that they are expecting a large turnout for this year’s parade and bracing for possible violence.

Persons: Itamar Ben, Gvir, Ben, ” Locations: Jerusalem, Israel

☆ From Paul Rudnick, a Mismatched Couple but Perfect for Each Other
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( R. Eric Thomas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As a budding writer with a knack for shrewd description, Nate spends the length of Paul Rudnick’s life-filled rom-com trying to find ways to describe that man, Farrell Covington: He is a “blinding sun god,” a “blank check,” an “unhinged cipher” and more. In so doing, Nate also reaches for a new way of seeing himself and what he believes to be possible for two men in love. To Nate’s surprise, Farrell returns his gaze with an even stronger intensity. It supersedes the look of a crush — it’s an appraisal, a reverie. And of the pair, Farrell is the one with an eye for beauty.

Persons: FARRELL COVINGTON, Paul Rudnick Nate Reminger, Nate, Paul Rudnick’s, Farrell Covington, Farrell, aesthete Organizations: Yale University Locations: New Jersey

☆ Packing Figures and Charts, Roy Leads G.O.P. Revolt Against Debt Limit Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Luke Broadwater | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the height of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s quest for his post in January, Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, darted from meeting to meeting ensuring that hard-line conservatives got what they wanted before agreeing to back the California Republican. One by one, nearly all of their demands were met in what Mr. Roy would later call a “power-sharing” agreement between Mr. McCarthy and his right flank. He and his allies are attempting to shoot down the agreement Mr. McCarthy reached with President Biden to suspend the debt ceiling just days before the country is headed for default. If not, he said, the House Freedom Caucus might once again have to go toe-to-toe with Mr. McCarthy. Several members have floated the idea of calling for Mr. McCarthy’s removal.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy’s, Chip Roy, Roy, McCarthy, Mr, Biden Organizations: Republican, California Republican, Republicans, Caucus Locations: Texas, California

☆ A Big Day for the Debt Ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Can House Republicans behave as the members of a well-functioning political party would? For much of the past several weeks, House Republicans have looked decidedly functional. In April, they passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling that included deep spending cuts and was akin to an initial offer in a negotiation. The compromise bill looked to be on course to pass — even as conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats criticized aspects of it. “Not one Republican should vote for this bill,” Representative Chip Roy of Texas, an influential ultraconservative, said yesterday afternoon.

Persons: don’t, Biden, Chip Roy Organizations: Republicans, Republican Locations: Texas

☆ Cost of insuring vs US default increases before vote on debt ceiling bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, May 31 (Reuters) - The cost of insuring exposure to a U.S. debt default rose on Wednesday, with investors focused on a debt ceiling vote in the House of Representatives later in the day. The U.S. one-year credit default swap (CDS) - a market-based gauge of the risk of default - climbed to 76 basis points (bps) from 56 bps late on Tuesday, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed. U.S. five-year CDS also edged up to 43 bps versus 42 bps the previous session. The House Rules Committee late on Tuesday, in the first procedural vote on the legislation, cleared the measure for debate in the full House on Wednesday. Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted that the evening vote would succeed, telling reporters, "It's going to become law."

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, Karl Schamotta, Schamotta, Gertrude Chavez, Dreyfuss, Will Dunham Organizations: YORK, U.S, P Global Market Intelligence, Republicans, Republican Freedom Caucus, Democratic Party, Thomson Locations: U.S, Toronto

☆ Debt Limit Bill Heads to Key Committee in First Test of G.O.P. Support
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Carl Hulse | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If they are joined by another Republican on the committee, they could sideline the agreement before it even reaches the floor. A third ultraconservative on the panel, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, is considered a potential ally of Mr. Roy and Mr. Norman but has shown receptiveness to the debt limit deal. Lawmakers are generally expected to back bills they had a hand in writing, even if they object to other aspects. “This debt deal arguably puts us on a better footing to do the appropriations process properly,” Mr. Massie said on Twitter on Monday. members backing the bill could also look to Democrats on the panel for support for the measure.

☆ Traders turn optimistic on debt ceiling deal — and one strategist says it's a 'market opportunity'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Lim Hui Jie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Speaker McCarthy discussed the latest development of the debt ceiling negotiations with the White House. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesAnalysts are broadly optimistic that the deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling will pass a divided Congress. The compromise also sees the debt ceiling suspended until Jan. 1, 2025, pushing it past the 2024 presidential election. watch nowDavid Roche, president and global strategist for Independent Strategy saw this as a "Democratic win." He expects the deal will pass the House with Democratic support, although, like Pavlick, he said right-wing Republicans will likely vote against it.

☆ White House and Republicans reach a tentative deal to avoid U.S. default
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — House Republicans reached a tentative deal with the White House on Saturday night to raise the nation's borrowing limit and avoid a catastrophic default on U.S. sovereign debt. "I expect to finish the writing of the bill, checking with the White House and speaking to the president again tomorrow afternoon," said the California Republican, "Then posting the text of it tomorrow, and then be voting on it on Wednesday." The White House has invited all House Democrats to attend a virtual briefing on Sunday afternoon, presumably to explain what is in the deal and urge Democrats to vote for it. Nonetheless, many Republicans have come to view the biennial vote to raise the debt limit as an opportunity to extract concessions from Democrats in exchange for their votes to avoid a debt default. Unless the debt limit were raised in time and the government was allowed to borrow more, "Our projected resources would be inadequate to satisfy all of these obligations."

☆ Debt Limit Talks Hit Snag as G.O.P. Declares a ‘Pause’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Catie Edmondson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Negotiations between top White House and Republican congressional officials over a deal to raise the debt limit hit a snag on Friday when a G.O.P. leader in the talks said it was time to “press pause,” complaining that President Biden’s team was being unreasonable and that no progress could be made. It was a setback in the effort to avert a debt default before a June 1 deadline, though it was not clear whether the delay was a tactical retreat or a lasting blow to chances of getting an agreement. The abrupt announcement of a pause also came just a day after Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, told reporters that he believed negotiators could reach a deal in principle as early as the weekend. But on Friday Mr. McCarthy and his deputies sounded a starkly different tone, saying that White House officials were refusing to come their way on spending cuts.

☆ McCarthy Brought His Detractors in From the Cold. Will They Stay?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Catie Edmondson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy narrowly passed his first major test this week when he marshaled the votes of his slim majority to muscle through a plan to tie a debt ceiling increase to spending cuts in a bid to force President Biden to negotiate over averting a disastrous default. It was a bare-minimum victory on a doomed bill, but it reflected how Mr. McCarthy, the California Republican who clawed his way to his position by catering to the hard right, has — for now — won over the ultraconservative wing of his party. Now comes the hard part. Having rallied Republicans around a plan he promised would strengthen his negotiating power against Mr. Biden, Mr. McCarthy will have to keep the right flank of his party happy as he seeks to negotiate a fiscal deal with the White House that will almost certainly be far less conservative than the bill the House passed on Wednesday. Mr. McCarthy succeeded this week by doing what he promised to during his drawn-out race for the speakership: empowering some of the most conservative lawmakers in his conference, the same ones who led the effort to block his election in January.

April 26 (Reuters) - Montana statehouse Republicans on Wednesday silenced Democratic transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr from floor debates for breaking decorum after she said lawmakers who backed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors would have "blood on their hands." The discord in Montana - which has garnered national attention amid an escalating culture war in the U.S. over issues like transgender rights - has brewed since an April 18 debate over Senate Bill 99. The state measure seeks to ban transgender healthcare treatments for minors, including puberty blockers and hormones. Zephyr remained defiant on Wednesday, telling the chamber that her "blood on your hands" comment was "not being hyperbolic." Republican legislators across the country have sought to ban certain healthcare for transgender youth.

☆ Montana transgender legislator censured after 'blood on your hands' comment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Montana statehouse Republicans on Wednesday censured Democratic transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr for breaking decorum after she said lawmakers who backed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors would have "blood" on their hands. Under the motion that passed with a vote of 68-32, Zephyr will be allowed to vote but not participate in debates on the Montana House of Representatives floor for the remainder of the legislative session. The discord in Montana has festered since an April 18 debate over Senate Bill 99, which would ban transgender healthcare treatments aimed at minors, such as puberty blockers and hormones. "If you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there's an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands," Zephyr said. Seven demonstrators were arrested, and Republicans increased their attention on Zephyr, with the ultraconservative Montana Freedom Caucus on Monday urging she be punished.

☆ Kevin McCarthy is working tirelessly and spending a lot of his political capital to win fights that don't actually matter.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Kevin McCarthy rallied GOP lawmakers to oust Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But taking Omar off the Foreign Affairs panel took a good deal more effort on his part. The Omar vote was seen as a huge victory for the party, especially coming off McCarthy's protracted 15 rounds of balloting to secure the House speakership. Republicans led a successful effort to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. While Republican leaders were pleased with the outcome, the behind-the-scenes work to push through a successful vote against Omar took up a lot of political oxygen.

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